By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON (AA): British lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement after 432 of them voted against it on Tuesday evening. Opposition Leader, Jeremy Corbyn proposed a motion of no confidence in May’s Government. The motion will be voted by MPs Wednesday.
The Labour leader’s motion, “That this house has no confidence in Her Majesty’s government,” will be debated in the afternoon in Parliament Wednesday. The vote will take place around 7pm. It is expected that Corbyn will not win the no-confidence vote as Tory backbenchers, even the Brexiteers, will not support the motion, including the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a unionist political party in Northern Ireland.
Dealing May a historic defeat, the vote declared the Brexit deal, which was agreed to by British and EU officials after two years of negotiations, effectively null and void.
The vote was originally scheduled to be held last December but the Prime Minister postponed it after failing to secure enough support, pledging legally binding assurances for the length and end of the backstop clause, dealing with the thorny Irish border issue.
A total of 202 MPs backed the deal.
May is now expected to brief Parliament on the Government’s Plan B in three working days.
The Prime Minister tried to make the case that her deal is the best for the country’s interests and the alternative would be leaving the union without a deal.
Scenarios after defeat today include May’s resignation, renewed general elections, an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process, a public referendum on the deal, or a no-deal Brexit.
The U.K. is set to leave the bloc on March 29 after more than 40 years of membership.
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Photo: As UK Parliament prepares to vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, pro and anti Brexit protesters gather to demonstrate around the parliamentary estate in London on January 15, 2019. Photographer: Tayfun Salcı/AA]
