The vote on the so-called "no-deal Brexit" was 321–278 in favor of an amendment to an existing proposal that "rejects the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement." The U.K. is due to leave the EU on March 29, whether or not any sort of agreement between the two entities has been reached.

Parliament had just a day before voted down the deal negotiated with the EU by Prime Minister Theresa May, 391–242. May had called a similar vote in recent weeks, and the result had been the same.

Much of the controversy in recent weeks has been around something called the backstop. The U.K. includes Northern Ireland. Because Ireland the U.K. have both been part of the EU, the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland has been a "soft" one, meaning that no physical inspections of people and goods or restrictions on entry, such as passport control, have been necessary.

Next up on the agenda is a vote to delay the United Kingdom's leaving the European Union. That would require an extension of the March 29 deadline that was set in the wake of May's invoking of Article 50 of the EU Constitution, which sets out procedures for member states to leave.

On June 23, 2016, a majority of voters (51.9 percent) in the United Kingdom's four nations–England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales–voted in a nationwide referendum to leave the European Union (EU), a move that would sever a relationship begun in 1973, when the body was the European Economic Community. May was not prime minister at the time of the referendum but took leadership of the governing Conservative Party not long after David Cameron's consequent resignation and has committed the country and the government to go forward with the political, economic, and social divorce.

The U.K. government on March 29, 2017 officially invoked Article 50 of the EU Constitution, which stipulated that the country must give up its membership in the EU within two years. That timeline officially ends on March 29.

That is now a hard and fast date on which all ties will be severed, though. Both the U.K. Parliament and the EU Parliament must approve any agreement between the entities, and the terms of any future relationship between the two will certainly provide the basis for negotiations taking place long after the "official" date. A total of 72 percent of member states must approve the arrangement, as must the European Parliament and the U.K. Parliament.