|
|
Talks with the opposition Labour Party haven’t yielded an agreement, but she’s hoping members of Parliament, stung by voter revolts, will back her in order to end the process that’s tearing both main parties apart.
“It’s time for Parliament to make a decision,” Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay told the BBC. “The country needs to move forward. Business needs to have certainty.”
In reality, May has run out of options. She opened talks with Labour seven weeks ago, arguing that nothing else had worked. Her Conservative Party was furious. But the talks didn’t deliver a breakthrough, and it was never clear that they could deliver a majority.
The next stage of May’s plan, as it was announced in April, was moving to a series of indicative votes if the talks failed. That appears to have been shelved.
Instead, in the week of June 3, while Donald Trump is in the U.K. on a state visit, she’ll put before Parliament the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which would write her deal into law. The government said this was “imperative” if the bill was to pass before Parliament goes on vacation in July. [...]