UK lawmakers to vote on whether to delay Brexit decision

Team Udayavani, Oct 19, 2019, 4:01 PM IST

London: Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to get Parliament to approve his divorce deal with the European Union was thrown into doubt Saturday, as lawmakers were first given a vote on whether yet again to delay their final decision on Brexit.

At a rare weekend sitting of Parliament, Johnson implored legislators to ratify the deal he struck this week with the other 27 EU leaders. He said members of the House of Commons should “come together as democrats to end this debilitating feud” that has wracked the country for more than three years.

“Now is the time for this great House of Commons to come together… as I believe people at home are hoping and expecting,” Johnson told lawmakers.

But he may not get the vote he craves. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said he would first allow a vote on an amendment that essentially puts the vote on the deal off until another day. Those behind the amendment say it will remove the risk that the U.K. could stumble out of the bloc without a deal on Oct. 31 because the law is not in place.

If the amendment passes, it also will force Johnson to seek a delay from the EU to Britain’s departure, due to take place in less than two weeks on Oct 31.

The prime minister signalled that he would do that under duress. He is compelled by law to ask for the extension, but he said,”it cannot change my judgment that further delay is pointless, expensive and deeply corrosive of public trust.”

Since striking a deal with the EU on Thursday, Johnson has been imploring and arm-twisting both Conservative and opposition lawmakers as he tries to win majority support for his deal.

Johnson’s Conservative Party holds only 288 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, so he will have to rely on support from other parties and independent lawmakers to get over the line.

The result looks set to be close, although Johnson has had some success winning over both hard-core Conservative Brexiteers and a handful of opposition Labour lawmakers who represent pro-Brexit parts of the country.

Johnson hopes for success in getting a fractious Parliament to back the deal after his predecessor, Theresa May, failed three times to get lawmakers behind her plan.

He said in The Sun newspaper on Saturday that a vote for the plan would bring a “painful chapter in our history” to an end.