UK | May faces no-confidence vote after historic Brexit defeat

Jeremy Corbyn speaks in the House of Commons in London after British Prime Minister Theresa May lost a vote on her Brexit plan

British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a no-confidence vote today [Macau time], a day after Parliament rejected her Brexit deal by a historic margin.

May is battling to save her job after staking her political reputation on a last-ditch effort to win support for the divorce agreement she negotiated with the European Union over the last two years. Though defeat was widely expected, the scale of the rout — 432-202 — was devastating for May’s leadership.

Immediately after the vote, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a no-confidence motion, saying it would give Parliament a chance to give its verdict “on the sheer incompetence of this government.”

Still, most analysts predict May will survive because lawmakers from her Conservative Party are unlikely to vote against her, and the Democratic Unionist Party, which supports the government, has said it will continue to back the prime minister. If the government were to lose, it would have 14 days to overturn the result or face a national election.

After the biggest defeat for any British government in well over a century, May promised to consult with senior lawmakers on future moves, but gave little indication of what she plans to do next. Parliament has given the government until Monday to come up with a new plan for leaving the EU.

“The House has spoken and the government will listen,” May said after the vote, which leaves her Brexit plan on life support just 10 weeks before Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29.

May faces a stark choice: Steer the country toward an abrupt break without a deal on future relations with the EU, or try to nudge it toward a softer departure. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both government and opposition parties are trying to wrest control of the Brexit process from a paralyzed government, so that lawmakers can direct planning for Britain’s departure from the EU.

But with no clear majority in Parliament for any single alternative, there is a growing chance that Britain may seek to postpone its departure date while politicians work on a new plan — or even hand the decision back to voters in a new referendum on EU membership.

Political analyst Anand Menon, from UK in a Changing Europe, said history is being made week after week in the Brexit saga, with government being held in contempt even as May soldiers on in Downing Street.

“She seems content with bringing something back to Parliament to vote on again,” Menon said.  “The thing about Theresa May is that nothing seems to phase her. She just keeps on going.”

European leaders are now preparing for the worst. EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc is stepping up preparations for a chaotic “no-deal” departure by Britain after Parliament’s rejection of the draft withdrawal deal left the bloc “fearing more than ever that there is a risk” of a cliff-edge departure.

Economists warn that an abrupt break with the EU could batter the British economy and bring chaotic scenes at borders, ports and airports. Business groups expressed alarm at the prospect of a no-deal exit.

“Every business will feel ‘no-deal’ is hurtling closer,” said Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry. “A new plan is needed immediately.”

But investors have so far shrugged off the rejection of May’s deal. The pound was up 0.1 percent at USD1.2869 in early morning trading in London, and the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.1 percent at 6,888.

While the uncertainty surrounding Brexit remains elevated, many investors think the vote makes it less likely Britain will crash out of the bloc with no deal.

Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney said the market reaction “would appear to reflect some expectation that the process of resolution would be extended and that the prospect of ‘no deal’ may have been diminished.”

Britain is “looking to Parliament for direction and one would expect continued volatility,” Carney told a parliamentary committee, stressing that he was giving the initial take of the markets. “I wouldn’t put much weight on these short-term moves.” Danica Kirka, London, AP

EU leaders plead with London to get its act together

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier

European Union leaders were pleading yesterday with the U.K. to finally get its act together on Brexit, end internal strife and come up with a realistic plan to leave the bloc — well over two years after Britain decided to leave the EU and departure just 10 weeks away.

European politicians watched the spectacle with a mix of shock and utter bafflement after Britain’s Parliament discarded Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal in a historic defeat for the government yesterday [Macau time].

EU officials immediately said that plans to cope with a disorderly, no-deal departure on March 29, rife with the prospect of chaos on roads, airports and administration would be sped up.

Hours after the humiliating setback for May’s government, EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that the EU was “fearing more than ever that there is a risk” of a cliff-edge departure.

Guy Verhofstadt, the chief Brexit official in the EU parliament, said in an interview with The Associated Press that Britain had better start seeing the impending departure as a national crisis that goes well beyond party politics.

“The only lesson for them is that they need to sit around one table, opposition and majority to sort out what is in the national interest,” Verhofstadt said.

What started as a fight within the Conservative Party which led to the June 2016 referendum, then spread to a hostile and bitter divide across British society and most parties in Parliament.

And despite the urgency and the massive economic stakes in winning a smooth departure with a long transition period and a raft of accompanying measures, division has only increased.

“Brexit is a disgrace for the British people and for the EU. Nobody wins. We all lose, in particular the British people,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told EU legislators.

EU parliamentarians could hardly believe the chaos in one of the Western world’s greatest democratic institutions. Watching Tuesday’s debate in the House of Commons, EPP legislator Esther de Lange said she “could not help but thinking ‘Boy, collectively they don’t know what they want, but, boy, do they hold great speeches.’”

Her EPP boss, Manfred Weber, showed more exasperation than admiration.

“Please, please, tell us finally what you want to achieve,” Weber said.

There is a suspicion in EU circles that by running down the clock as close to March 29 as possible, Britain would seek to draw belated concessions from the 27 member states. But so far, unity among them has persevered and on Wednesday, each and all insisted that it would remain that way in the weeks to come.

Barnier said that any future deal would still have to include approving the withdrawal agreement, the 585-page document which the British parliament rejected on Tuesday.

“Whatever happens, ratification of the withdrawal agreement is necessary. It is a precondition,” he said.

Barnier said that a linked political declaration on future relations offered “possible options” for further talks.

EU Vice President Frans Timmermans had one clear piece of advice for British legislators: listen to your own musical heroes and he started quoting from the Rolling Stones: “You cannot always get what you want. But if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.” AP