In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the Parliament of the United Kingdom successfully voted to approve Theresa May’s Brexit deal. This is after the first vote over a week ago failed and the Prime Minister struggled to meet with other MPs in order to compile a new list of conditions to present to the European Union. This resulted in her new proposal which managed to pass in Parliament. With 317 votes for and 301 against, it was quite a close call, but a win for the Prime Minister nevertheless.
The new proposal remains the same as before, except this time May vowed to remove the backstop. With the issue of the Irish border aside, her deal succeeded. However, the European Union has not agreed to that and has previously stated it would not, so now it is up to the Prime Minister to change their minds.
Moreover, MPs also voted to eliminate the no-deal scenario. This was a requirement by opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn before he agreed to speak to May; with that out of the way, the two will gather today to discuss their strategy.
European Union leaders have commented that the backstop cannot be changed because the agreement in which it was defined is binding. They are more flexible with regard of the exit date for the UK and are willing to extending the deadline, but the key issue of the Irish border remains a point of disagreement.
