May appeals to House of Commons to pass her deal

British Prime Minister Theresa May will make a last-ditch effort to win over the House of Commons to get her Brexit deal passed.

May will make her final appeal in a speech she is due to deliver on Monday at a factory in Stoke-on-Trent in central England, where the majority of people voted to leave the European Union (EU).

“I ask MPs to consider the consequences of their actions on the faith of the British people in our democracy,” she will say in her speech.

“What if we found ourselves in a situation where parliament tried to take the UK out of the EU in opposition to a remain vote? People’s faith in the democratic process and their politicians would suffer catastrophic harm. We all have a duty to implement the result of the referendum.”

However, with less than 48 hours left before the vote starts, there are not great hopes for changes of opinion in the House of Commons.

“I don’t think the defeat will go into three figures – I’d expect between 50 and 100,” said a staunch supporter of May’s plan to withdraw from the EU. “It depends in part how many Labour MPs are willing to vote for the deal.”

Meanwhile, an analysis by Sky and BBC News places the scale of the defeat at around 200 votes.

It is likely that three Labour MPs, Caroline Flint, Gareth Snell and Lisa Nandy, whose proposed amendments on workers’ rights were adopted, will also vote against the plan, The Guardian reported.

Andrew Mitchell, a conservative backbencher, also said none of the recent developments had changed his mind, noting, “I think it creates more problems than it solves.” 

“If the loss is large, there will be some pressure on her to go. There is a sense she has reached the end of the road,” a loyal MP said.

It is understood that May could opt for other directions, such as going for cross-party consensus in order to get a softer Brexit deal, though this has not been discussed much.

If the prime minister loses the vote, which at this point seems inevitable, she will have to reappear at the House of Commons in three days with a plan B, which would be an opportunity for Labour to act.

“We will table a motion of no confidence in the government at a time of our choosing, but it’s going to be soon, don’t worry about that,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show.

PressTV-UK Labour to seek no-confidence vote

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the party will “soon” call a no-confidence motion in the government of Prime Minister Theresa May.

Cross-party MPs on Monday will publish two draft plans for a new referendum on Brexit. One of the pair would provide voters with the option of voting for May’s plan or staying in the bloc.

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