It has been a long and exciting week for anyone following the Brexit developments in the United Kingdom. The government, led by Prime Minister Theresa May, organized three consecutive votes this week on key issues pertaining to the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, so today we would break all of those events down.
First off, on Tuesday UK MPs had the opportunity to once again pass their judgement on the Brexit deal negotiated by Theresa May with the European Union last year. Since its original publication in late 2018 the deal has gathered quite a bit of negative responses. A key issue is Northern Ireland, because it needs to keep its “soft” border with the Republic of Ireland, while at the same time remaining a part of another country, the United Kingdom, but according to the European Union’s standard rules, a hard border must exist between members and non-members. Thus, the Irish backstop was put in the Brexit deal, which is problematic because in its attempt to keep Northern Ireland and Ireland closer together, it will give a special status to Northern Ireland, separating it from the rest of the United Kingdom in terms of customs and trade policies. Theresa May fought long and hard to negotiate legally binding assurances that the backstop might be successfully prevented if the United Kingdom and the European Union negotiate agreements on all those points before the end of the transition period, but this still worried Parliament too much, so on Tuesday May’s deal was rejected once more.
With May’s deal out of the table, on Wednesday the members of UK Parliament had to vote on whether they want to take a no-deal Brexit course instead. Considering the overwhelming amount of evidence that a hard Brexit will be catastrophic to the economy of the United Kingdom, it came as no surprise at all that MPs said NO to a hard Brexit. Moreover, while the initial vote was supposed to be “no to a hard Brexit on March 29” it was revised to apply under any circumstances, i.e. even further down the road, past March 29, the United Kingdom’s Parliament does not want to leave without a deal.
Finally, last night MPs voted whether they want the government to ask the European Union for an official extension to Article 50, meaning that the UK does not leave on March 29 but instead gets more time to negotiate. With a convincing majority of two-thirds of all votes Parliament voted yes, in favor of extending the deadline.
Right now it is up Theresa May’s government to decide by how much to extend the deadline. Despite her deal failing to gather enough support twice already, May will be calling a third vote on her deal next week. Her cabinet has stated that if her deal passes this vote, then she can apply for just a short extension until June 30 to smooth out the more hotly contested clauses in the deal. Otherwise, if the deal fails a third time, the government will ask for a longer extension in order to negotiate a brand-new deal.
It is also possible that should a longer extension is agreed with the European Union, a general election is called and the government gets replaced. This is certainly the hope of the opposition Labour Party. The voices in favor of a second Brexit referendum are also going to grow louder if the UK buys more time, since previously that option was ruled out on account of the long time required to organize a public vote, which would not be an issue with a longer extension.
