A pro-Brexit banner at the ‘March to Leave’ demonstration in London, Britain, March 29, 2019. Photo courtesy Telesur
LONDON, March 30 (NNN-TELESUR) – The British Parliament rejected Friday Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement with 344 lawmakers voting against it while 286 voted in favor of it.
May needed 318 votes to be able to guarantee the extension of Brexit until May 22, as the European Union had demanded. With this defeat, however, the new withdrawal date is 12 April.
The British prime minister chose to separate the ‘Brexit Withdrawal Agreement’ from the ‘Brexit Political Declaration’, a proposal aimed at bypassing Speaker John Bercow’s ban and presenting the Brexit vote again in the House of Commons. She had declared that had the deal passed in parliament she would have had resigned from her position and allowed for new leadership to carry out future negotiations.
Nevertheless, in two previous votes, May’s proposal was also rejected by 432 votes in January and by 391 votes on March 12. Her political maneuvers have not been enough to guarantee results.
While PM May was trying to save her Brexit plan – on the very day that Britain was originally expected to be leaving the European Union (EU) – thousands of people opposed to a delay gathered outside the Parliament holding signs accusing her of treachery, waving U.K flags and chanting “Out means out,” “Bye, bye EU,” “What do we want? Brexit? When do we want it now? Now.”
“What should have been a celebration is in fact a day of betrayal,” Nigel Farage, a hard Eurosceptic and former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, said and added that “there will be a lot of anger. I certainly have never known a time in my life when people have said such rude things about the political class, about the government.”
As the three-year Brexit crisis seems to approach its finale, it is still uncertain how and when the U.K will leave the European Union. Supports of leaving the EU fear, however, Brexit will be thwarted by a political elite which they say has been broadly opposing the people’s vote.
“We need to remind the country that the majority of people voted ‘Leave,'” David Malindine, a retired teacher, said and recalled that “this was the day we were supposed to leave, and Brexit has been betrayed.”
“It is absolutely disgusting what is happening,” Andy Allan, a 58-year old Brexiter said and warned, “this is just the beginning of a mass uprising if we get betrayed by the politicians.”
Regarding what will happen once May’s Brexit deal has been defeated, there are two main options. “Either the U.K. falls out of the EU without a deal in two weeks’ time. Or Mrs. May, or whoever is prime minister when the time comes, heads to Brussels to ask for another delay,” Aubrey Allegretti, a political reporter, said as reported by SkyNews.
Either way, the European Council President Donald Tusk called an emergency EU-27 summit over Brexit on April 10, just two days before the new deadline.
“In view of the rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement by the House of Commons, I have decided to call a European Council on 10 April”, he said through Twitter.