As reported by Bloomberg, the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May is set to face-off against her own hostile parliament when the House of Commons votes on her current Brexit deal on December 11th.
Key quotes
The vote will mark the moment when British politicians decide whether to accept the contentious divorce terms May has struck with the European Union — or put the country on course to crash out of the bloc with no agreement in place.
“There is a choice which this House will have to make,” May told the Commons. “We can back this deal, deliver on the vote of the referendum and move on to building a brighter future of opportunity and prosperity for all our people. Or this House can choose to reject this deal and go back to square one,” she said.
May got a taste of how difficult her task will be. A succession of Conservatives warned her they will not back her plan. Without an automatic majority in Parliament, May needs every vote she can get.
“No sooner is the ink dry than the Spanish are after Gibraltar and the French are after our fish,” Conservative Mark Francois said as he called May’s deal a “surrender.” The prime minister “knows the mathematics” in Parliament, he said. “The deal will never get through.”
May has launched a national campaign and is embarking on a U.K.-wide tour to win support for the agreement. The deal, which took 17 months of negotiations to finalize, offers to keep Britain closely tied to EU rules to allow for smooth trade with the bloc after Brexit.
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