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January 15, 2019

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May full of promises as UK prepares for key vote

British Prime Minister Theresa May offered both a promise on workers鈥 rights and a reassuring letter from European Union leaders yesterday as she implored British lawmakers to support her floundering Brexit deal.

But the British leader had few concrete measures up her sleeve a day before a vote in Parliament which looks likely to see her Brexit deal rejected. A defeat today would throw Brexit plans into disarray just weeks before the UK is due to leave the bloc on March 29.

May warned that the only alternatives to her agreement were an economically damaging, chaotic no-deal exit from the EU or a halt to Britain鈥檚 departure that would defy British voters鈥 decision in 2016 to leave the bloc.

In a speech yesterday at a ceramics factory in the pro-Brexit central England city of Stoke-on-Trent, May said 鈥減eople鈥檚 faith in the democratic process and their politicians would suffer catastrophic harm鈥 if her deal is rejected and Brexit was abandoned.

The other option, leaving the EU without a deal, 鈥渨ould cause turbulence for our economy, create barriers to security cooperation and disrupt people鈥檚 daily lives,鈥 she said.

鈥淭he only deal on the table is the one (members of Parliament) will vote on tomorrow night,鈥 May said.

Britain and the EU reached a hard-won divorce deal in November, a milestone that should have set the UK on the road to an orderly exit.

But the deal has been rejected by both sides of Britain鈥檚 Brexit divide. Many lawmakers who back leaving the EU say it leaves the UK tethered to the bloc鈥檚 rules and unable to forge an independent trade policy, while pro-Europeans argue it is inferior to the frictionless economic relationship Britain currently enjoys as an EU member.

May postponed a vote on the deal in December to avoid a resounding defeat, and there are few signs sentiment has changed significantly since then. Several previously opposed British legislators have swung behind May鈥檚 agreement in the last few days, but they remain outnumbered by the 鈥淣o鈥 vote.

In a bid to win support, May sought reassurances from EU leaders about the deal鈥檚 most contentious measure 颅鈥 the backstop that would keep Britain in an EU customs union to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit.

Pro-Brexit lawmakers worry that Britain could be trapped indefinitely in the backstop.

In a letter to May published yesterday, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker offered an assurance that the backstop 鈥渨ould only be in place for as long as strictly necessary.鈥


 

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