Britain clinches Brexit deal, Johnson now faces parliament challenge

Record ID: 1437450

  • Title: Britain clinches Brexit deal, Johnson now faces parliament challenge
  • Date: 2nd September 2019
  • Summary: ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** JOHNSON LEAVING FOREIGN SECRETARY'S RESIDENCE AFTER RESIGNING AS BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2019 09:49
  • Keywords: UK Brexit prime minister EU Europe Britain parliament conservative party leader Boris Johnson foreign secretary
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: European Union,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA00LAUZYEDJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Britain clinched a last-minute Brexit deal with the European Union on Thursday (October 17), but still faced a challenge in getting it approved by parliament.
    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that that Britain and the European Union had agreed a "great" new Brexit deal and urged lawmakers to approve it at the weekend.
    "We've got a great new deal that takes back control," Johnson said in a tweet.
    Johnson is hoping to get approval for the agreement in a vote at an extraordinary session of the British parliament on Saturday, to pave the way for an orderly departure on October 31.
    However, the Northern Irish party that Johnson needs to help ratify any agreement has refused to support the deal that was hammered out over weeks of negotiations.
    The head of the main opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said in Brussels he was "unhappy" with the deal and would vote against it. Lawmakers in his party said they had been told to vote for another referendum on Saturday.
    Johnson has no majority in the 650-seat parliament, and in practice needs 320 votes to get a deal ratified this Saturday - in what will be the first Saturday session since the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. The DUP have 10 votes.
    The British parliament defeated similar deals struck by Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, three times.
    Johnson won the top job by pledging to renegotiate May's agreement, though he is reviving the bulk of it now, with changes to the protocol on how to treat the border between EU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.
    The uncertainty over parliament's approval means that, two weeks before the latest date for the United Kingdom's departure from the world's largest trading bloc, the possible outcomes still range from an orderly departure to a chaotic exit or even another referendum that could reverse the entire endeavour.
    It is unclear what Brexit will ultimately mean for the United Kingdom and the European project - built on the ruins of World War Two as a way to integrate economic power and thus end centuries of European bloodshed.
    Johnson, who was the face of the campaign to leave the EU in Britain's 2016 referendum, has repeatedly said he will not ask for a delay - even though parliament has passed a law to oblige him to do just that if it has not agreed and ratified a deal by Saturday.
    (Production: Alex Fraser, Chris Read, Iona Serrapica, Helena Williams)
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