Theresa May has hinted at a snap general election and a long delay to Brexit after MPs rejected the withdrawal agreement by 344 votes to 286, a majority of 58 votes. Speaking in the House of Commons after the vote, the prime minister described the implications of the decision as "grave", adding that the default position was that Britain would leave the EU in just two weeks on April 12th.
“I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House. This House has rejected no deal. It has rejected no Brexit. On Wednesday it rejected all the variations of the deal on the table. And today it has rejected approving the Withdrawal Agreement alone and continuing a process on the future. This government will continue to press the case for the orderly Brexit that the result of the referendum demands,” she said.
A Downing Street spokesman declined three times to deny that a general election is now on the table, although that would require a lengthy extension to the article 50 deadline. Mrs May said that parliament would not allow Britain to leave without a deal so if MPs do not approve her Brexit deal before an emergency EU summit on April 10th, she will request a long extension.
Such an extension would require Britain to participate in European Parliament elections on May 23rd and has to be approved by all 27 other EU member-states. Mrs May announced this week that she will resign as prime minister if her Brexit deal is approved and the Conservatives could face a leadership election ahead of any general election.
Parliament Square rally
While MPs were debating the withdrawal agreement, pro-Brexit protesters held a rally in Parliament Square to mark the day Britain was due to leave the EU.
A number of high profile Conservative Brexiteers, including Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dominic Raab, voted with the government in favour of the withdrawal agreement. But 28 hardline Brexiteers voted against it, alongside six Conservative Remainers, the DUP and the opposition parties. Just five Labour MPs voted for the agreement.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister should accept after the latest defeat that her Brexit deal is unacceptable and urged her to call a general election.
“The House has been clear, this deal now has to change. There has to be an alternative found. And if the prime minister can’t accept that then she must go, not at an indeterminate date in the future but now. So that we can decide the future of this country through a general election.”
Next Monday, MPs will take part in the second stage of indicative voting on alternatives to the prime minister’s Brexit deal. In the first round on Wednesday, they rejected all eight options put before them but they hope to whittle down the options next week.
Downing Street on Friday declined to rule out a further attempt to win parliamentary approval for the Brexit deal if speaker John Bercow allows it.
