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Brexit committee says no-deal cannot be government policy

Monday, 28 January 2019 10:49 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 28 January 2019 11:27 AM ]

A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK parliament (Photo by AFP)

The government of Prime Minister Theresa May cannot have a “managed no deal” as its policy for Brexit and that the parliament needs to be able to extend the negotiating period with the European Union, says a committee of British lawmakers.

“Having taken a wide range of evidence on the implications of a no deal Brexit, the committee is clear that this cannot be allowed to happen,” Hilary Benn, chairman of the parliament’s Brexit committee, said on Monday.

“MPs (lawmakers) must be able to vote on extending Article 50 if Parliament cannot reach agreement on a way forward before March 29,” Benn added.

With about two months left to the Brexit date -- March 29, the United Kingdom is in the deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973.

May is engaged in a last-ditch bid to win support for a tweaked withdrawal agreement after the parliament this month crushed the original plan in the biggest defeat in modern UK history.

The prime minister has said that if the parliament does not support an improved version of her draft Brexit deal with the EU in the coming weeks, she would have no option but to stick to her plans for a no-deal Brexit.

In a statement to the House of Commons last week, May rejected a demand by some lawmakers that there should be another popular vote to determine the fate of Brexit, saying such a vote that could abolish the results of the June 23, 2016 referendum, would undermine faith in the British democracy and damage social cohesion while it could also strengthen the hand of those seeking to break up the United Kingdom.

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