Written by: Kelly Grounds, Peak Associate
After a year and a half of negotiation and internal conflicts, British Prime Minister Theresa May finally announced her party’s draft Brexit plan. Now, the deal will go to a special European council meeting to be approved and then back to the British Parliament for a final vote of approval.
The EU has been in intense negotiations with the UK ever since the referendum, and with the deadline approaching quickly (March 29, 2019), any deal would ease the divorce.
The issue is that May’s current plan has almost no chance of making it through Parliament and the European Council. May’s deal was even followed by discourse and division within her own cabinet; since the beginning of November, five of her party members have quit, including the Brexit secretary.
After the draft deal was announced, accusations of bullying and party pressure began to emerge. One report claims that only the environment secretary was in favour of the deal.
This lack of support is not promising for something that’s supposed to pad over a move as massive as Brexit. The lack of support should be a huge source of concern among the British public, and their concern could cause parliament to be more critical towards the deal.
If this deal fails, it is unclear as to what the UK will do. One possibility is a vote of confidence will be held in parliament, which could result in May being removed from power. But it could also result in a forced no-deal Brexit, which would be very bad for both parties but especially for the UK, as they do owe the EU an estimated 36 billion pounds.
Either way, after this much waiting for big progress to happen, it’s infuriating that Brexit somehow continues to be more worrying with every piece of news that comes along.
