Theresa May To Put Up Brexit For Parliament Votes, Fourth Time

Theresa May has announced that MPs would vote on legislation to implement the Brexit deal in the week starting June 3.

Naija News understands that this is the fourth stage for a fourth showdown with parliament over her EU withdrawal deal which could also be her last act as Britain’s prime minister.

May made this known after talks with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday evening.

But Labour warned it had not yet agreed to support the bill, while May’s Northern Irish allies said that unless the EU agreement changed, they would not back it.

May struck a deal on Britain’s exit terms with the European Union in November, but it has been rejected by the House of Commons threee times

Unwilling to end more than four decades of EU membership without new arrangements in place, she has delayed Brexit twice, most recently to October 31.

Setting a date for the next parliament vote without an agreement with Labour is a gamble — if she loses, May cannot hold another in the current parliamentary session.

But the Brexit delays have caused huge anger among her Conservative MPs as well as voters, and the party is braced for an electoral drubbing at European polls next week.

May is also under intense pressure to fulfil her promise to MPs to deliver Brexit and then stand aside for a new leader.

On Thursday, she will meet senior Conservatives who have demanded a detailed timetable for her departure.

Her ministers — many of whom are already jockeying to replace her — agreed this week that any Brexit deal must be passed before parliament’s summer holiday at the end of July.

Britain could then leave the EU on July 31.

Labour doubts
May opened talks with Labour six weeks ago, acknowledging that entrenched opposition from her own side meant she needed help from across the political divide to pass her Brexit deal.

But progress has been slow. May’s spokesman described Tuesday’s talks as “constructive” but Labour said it needed “further movement from the government”.

It expressed concern that any promises made by May, for example, to protect workers’ rights in return for Labour backing the Brexit deal, would be ripped up by her successor.

Corbyn “set out the shadow cabinet’s concerns about the prime minister’s ability to deliver on any compromise agreement”, a spokesman said.

Talks will continue Wednesday among officials, and Labour warned that without a cross-party agreement, it would not back the bill in June.

However, the party is also feeling the pressure ahead of next week’s European Parliament elections.

Labour is struggling to maintain its finely balanced position on Brexit, promising to both deliver on the referendum but also to keep Britain close to the EU.

The Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage, a key figure in the 2016 referendum campaign, is topping opinion polls, taking votes from both Labour and the Tories, Nigeria News reports.