- Title: Timeline one month ahead of Brexit
- Date: 14th November 2018
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - MARCH 29, 2017) (REUTERS) HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT EARLY MORNING BIG BEN CLOCK FACE
- Embargoed: 28th November 2018 09:42
- Keywords: Brexit timeline European Union Brexit 29 March 2019 EU referendum Britain leaving the EU EU British Prime Minister Theresa May
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: Various
- Topics: European Union,Government/Politics,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA00T96HYQMF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY IN SHOT 41
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES TO SEPARATE SOUNDBITES
With just one month to go until Britain is due to leave the European Union, the chances of British Prime Minister resurrecting a deal with the bloc hangs by a thread.
The United Kingdom is on course to leave the EU on March 29 without a deal unless Prime Minister Theresa May can convince the bloc to reopen the divorce agreement she reached in November and then sell it to sceptical British lawmakers.
May on Tuesday (February 26) offered lawmakers the chance to vote in just over two weeks’ time on whether to delay Brexit or go for a potentially disorderly no-deal exit from the European Union if her attempt to ratify a divorce deal fails.
Speaking to parliament on Tuesday, May said that if she had failed to get approval of her deal by March 12 then lawmakers would be given a vote on March 13 on leaving without a deal.
If they rejected that option, then lawmakers would have a vote on March 14 on a motion requesting a "short, limited extension" Brexit delay.
Opening up the possibility of taking a no-deal off the table marks one of the biggest turning points in the United Kingdom's labyrinthine Brexit crisis since the shock 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU.
After the British parliament voted 432-202 against her divorce deal in January, the worst defeat for a government in modern British history, May has repeatedly tried to use the threat of a potentially disorderly no-deal Brexit to get concessions out of the EU.
But British lawmakers worried that May risks thrusting the world's fifth largest economy into an economic crisis have threatened to usurp control of Brexit from the government in a series of votes on Wednesday.
As companies and governments across Europe step up preparations for a disorderly no-deal exit, diplomats and officials said Britain now faces three main options: a no-deal exit, a last-minute deal or a delay to Brexit.
For May, failure to deliver a revised deal would shatter the fragile unity in her Conservative Party, leaving her already-diminished authority in tatters, and ramping up uncertainty in financial markets over the fate of the British economy, the world's fifth largest.
The United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU has strained ties between its constituent parts: England and Wales voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay.
May has said she will seek an alternative arrangement which avoids the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland, or legally binding changes to the backstop to introduce a time limit or create an exit mechanism.
Brexit has snagged on the 310-mile (500-km) frontier because there is disagreement on how to monitor trade without physical checks on the border, which was marked by military checkpoints before the Good Friday peace agreement.
Under the divorce deal agreed in November, the 'backstop' would come into effect if the two sides failed to come up with a better idea to keep the border open. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None