May may ask EU Brexit extension while UK sinks into political "crisis" | Policy



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Theresa May believes that the UK has entered a political crisis, said her spokeswoman, confirming that she would write to EU leaders to request a Brexit postponement.

The Prime Minister's plan to present the Parliament's agreement on Brexit for a third meaningful vote, before European leaders meet on Thursday, was plunged into chaos on Monday when John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, stated that the parliamentary convention would mean that it would be unacceptable. that another vote takes place on an unchanged agreement.

"The Prime Minister will write to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, before the start of the European Council, about an extension," said the spokesman.

He declined to say how long she would ask or for what purpose she would simply insist that "you will have to wait for this letter to be published".

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Asked that May agrees with Solicitor General Robert Buckland, who described the situation after Bercow's decision Monday as a "constitutional crisis," his spokesman said: "If you go back on the speech pronounced by the Prime Minister, just before credit two, she said that if the deputies did not support the two significant vote, we would be in crisis.

"The events of yesterday tell you that this situation has occurred."

On March 18, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, decided that he would not allow Parliament to vote again on the same Brexit deal. Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to make "substantial" changes to her two previous attempts by her government to bring the withdrawal agreement with the EU.

Bercow said: "If the government wishes to present a new proposal that is neither identical nor substantially identical to the one presented by the House on March 12, that would be entirely correct.

What the government can not legitimately do is re-submit to the House the same proposal – or essentially the same proposal – as last week, which was rejected by 149 votes.

This decision should not be considered as my last word on the subject. It is simply a matter of indicating the test to which the government must submit, so that I can decide that a third meaningful vote can legitimately take place during this parliamentary session. "


Photo: Reuters Tv / X00514

Ministers discussed Brexit for about 90 minutes Tuesday morning, he said. He refused to confirm that they had agreed on the length of the request for extension of Article 50 or whether the Cabinet had approved a draft letter.

Asked whether ministers would be allowed to advocate alternative approaches, as they had done during the free vote last week on the extension of Article 50, he responded : "This letter will expose the position of the British government".

Cabinet ministers, including Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay, and House Leader Andrea Leadsom voted against the government's motion for an extension of the vote in last week's vote, although Barclay be declared favorable soon after the dispatch.

Any change of exit day will have to be approved by the Parliament, he conceded, March 29 being specified in the law on the withdrawal of the EU.

"It would be necessary to change the date in the withdrawal law and it would require a regulatory text that should be approved by both Houses of Parliament."

During last week's Brexit debate, ministers promised that if no agreement was reached by Parliament this week, they would hold a debate next Monday on the process that could be used to find consensus on alternatives. .

Many MEPs, including those calling for closer relations with the EU, have interpreted this as a promise of so-called indicative votes, to determine if there might be a majority for another approach.

Barclay insisted on Tuesday that the prime minister could still have another vote on his Brexit deal if he agreed to the terms of an extension of Article 50 with the EU, saying that that would satisfy Bercow's objections.

A long extension would mean that the United Kingdom would spend more than £ 100 million to participate in the European parliamentary elections.

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