At their summit last week European leaders agreed to grant the United Kingdom an extension to Article 50 so that they can negotiate a satisfying Brexit outcome. Prime Minister Theresa May was promised a May 22 deadline, which allows the United Kingdom to avoid participating in the European Parliamentary elections, but this is only on condition that the deal negotiated between May’s government and the EU last November is backed by the UK Parliament.
Nevertheless, this is becoming more difficult by the hour. May initially said she would put her deal to another vote in Parliament this week, but after a long weekend of meetings with MPs across party lines, yesterday she announced that she currently does not have sufficient backing for the deal. She also acknowledged that a no-deal Brexit is not what Parliament wants, as indicated by votes held two weeks ago.
Frustrated at May’s government lack of decisiveness and fresh ideas, Members of Parliament then successfully passed an amendment to hold indicative votes on alternative solutions to Brexit, including revoking Article 50 or calling a second Brexit referendum. This only happened last night, so the votes have not been scheduled yet, but they will happen. The Prime Minister reminded MPs that these votes are not legally binding, so the government can technically ignore them and continue pushing with their unpopular deal, but we are likely to see some new plans about Brexit that Theresa May said she is willing to at least hear out. This procedure could also be paving the way for forcing May to resign and calling preliminary elections.
