British PM Theresa May Postpones Brexit Parliamentary Vote

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday canceled a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal to seek more concessions but the European Union refused to renegotiate and lawmakers doubted her chances of winning big changes.

May’s sudden move less than 30 hours before the parliamentary vote paves the way for a range of possibilities from a Brexit without a deal, a last-minute agreement, or another referendum.

Admitting that she has faced defeat on Britain’s potentially biggest political and economic shift since World War II, May was laughed at by some lawmakers when she said there was broad support for key aspects of her deal reached with the EU last month.

On the other hand, “if we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow, the deal would be rejected by a significant margin,” she said to the parliament referring to the agreement she clinched after 18 months of arduous negotiations.

With her position at stake, May said that she would now go back to the EU and seek reassurances over the so-called Irish “backstop,” an insurance policy to ensure no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

She raised question over whether the parliament was attempting to frustrate the democratic will of Britons to leave the EU and warned that without an agreement the world’s fifth-biggest economy would exit the block on March 29 without a deal.

The EU reacted, with European Council President Donald Tusk saying that it was ready to discuss how to smooth out ratification, but that neither the withdrawal agreement nor the Irish backstop would be renegotiated.

“As time is running out, we will also discuss our preparedness for a no-deal scenario,” said Tusk. Brexit will be discussed at a previously scheduled EU summit on December 13 to 14.

May will initially meet Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday.

Sterling slumped to its weakest level since April 2017, dropping to $1.2507. It was trading at $1.50 on the day of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Yields on US 10-year bonds dropped to the lowest since late August.

The vote cancellation marks what many lawmakers cast as the collapse of May’s two-year attempt to forge compromise under which the United Kingdom would exit the EU while staying closely within its orbit.

The EU’s 27 other members, with an economic power six times that of the United Kingdom, appeared unlikely to countenance substantive changes that could convince her domestic opponents.

A costly Brexit without a negotiated accord looks increasingly probable, French European affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau said after May’s decision.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas that there were no possibilities to modify British 585-page withdrawal deal and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that preparations for a no-deal Brexit should intensify.

May indicated that she was seeking further assurances from the EU on the working of the backstop and would seek to give the British parliament more power over its application to satisfy sovereignty demands.

May said that other EU leaders were open to discussion about the backstop, but few in parliament were convinced.

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