LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May’s final
Brexit gambit was in tatters on Wednesday as lawmakers in her own party rejected a compromise offer and called for her to resign immediately.
Nearly three years since Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the
European Union, the beleaguered May made one last pitch on Tuesday to get her divorce deal approved by the British parliament before her crisis-riven premiership ends.
She offered a parliamentary vote on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum — once her legislation passes the first stage — as well as closer trading arrangements with the EU in future as incentives to what she called the only way to prevent a disruptive “no-deal” Brexit. But the backlash was swift and fierce.
Both ruling Conservative and opposition Labour lawmakers criticised May’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, or WAB, legislation which implements the terms of Britain’s twice-delayed departure. Some intensified their public efforts to oust May and there were reports that her own cabinet ministers could move against her.
“There is one last chance to get it right and leave in an orderly fashion. But it is now time for Prime Minister Theresa May to go — and without delay,” Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee, wrote in the Financial Times. “She must announce her resignation after Thursday’s European (Parliament) elections.”
The protracted impasse in
London over the terms of Brexit means it is unclear how, when or even if Britain will leave the European club it joined in 1973.
May’s latest offer has enraged eurosceptics opposed to a second referendum, and fails to go far enough for those who want to give the public another say in the hope of stopping Brexit altogether.