Nay Again on Brexit: Two-week Deadline Invoked

On This Site

Current Events

Share This Page






Follow This Site

Follow SocStudies4Kids on Twitter

March 31, 2019

The United Kingdom's Parliament has rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third time, even though the third version was a stripped-down version of the original proposal. As a result, the U.K. will leave the European Union on April 12.

Brexit

In a special sitting of Parliament, lawmakers again voted down the deal that May had negotiated with EU representatives. The vote the third time was the closest yet, at 344–286, but it was still a defeat. May had offered to resign as Prime Minister if it meant that Parliament passed the deal. Parliament had also, late last week, rejected eight different alternatives to May's deal.

In response, European Council President Donald Tusk said that EU leaders would meet on April 10 in order to discuss how the U.K. leaves. The European Council has been adamant that it would not accept any "mini deals" or other kinds of side arrangements.

As a result, the British pound fell half a percent and businesses in the U.K. and around expressed concern at what they said might be a chaotic Brexit, perhaps requiring many new trade and business deals because the U.K. would no longer be in the same customs union and common market with the EU.

Also a result, and particularly in the wake of the extended deadline, a growing number of lawmakers, ministers, and others in government are lamenting the toll the Brexit debates and votes are taking on the progress of other legislation. Many key bills have stalled in Parliament, awaiting the end to the Brexit saga, one way or another.

London was the scene for dueling protests in the wake of the vote. On Friday, the day that the original proposal set for the U.K.'s leaving the EU, a large pro-Brexit crowd gathered to protest the delay. The following day, a larger crowd marched through the capital, demanding a second referendum.

The first referendum, in 2016, resulted in a slim majority's voting for the U.K. to exit the EU. In the aftermath, May invoked Article 50 of the EU Constitution, setting a two-year clock ticking. That two-year time period ended on March 29, but the EU had, at the last moment, granted twin extensions: one for the U.K. to iron out details by May 22, but only if Parliament approved May's deal; the other for April 12, if Parliament did not approve May's deal.

Search This Site

Custom Search

Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2024
David White