U.K.’s May Says Brexit Is Now a Matter for Next Prime Minister
This suggests she won’t put her thrice-rejected deal to Parliament next week.
(Bloomberg) -- Theresa May said Brexit is now a matter for her successor, suggesting she won’t put her thrice-rejected deal to Parliament next week.
Arriving in Brussels for a European Union summit, the prime minister told journalists that both sides of the debate will need to give ground if U.K. lawmakers are to get Brexit across the line. The best option for Britain, she said, remains to leave the bloc with a negotiated deal.
“That matter is now for my successor and they will have to find a way of addressing the very strongly held views on both sides of this issue,” said May, who announced last week she’d resign on June 7. “To get a majority in Parliament, as I said on Friday, I think will require compromise.”
May’s remarks indicate the government has finally abandoned the idea of securing MPs’ backing for her Withdrawal Deal, heightening the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. A crowded field of candidates is building up for the Tory leadership contest. Some, including the favorite, former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, say they’d be prepared to leave the bloc without a deal.
May declined to comment on candidates’ Brexit views, but said: “I continue to have a view that it’s best for the U.K. to leave with a deal.”
Brexit Bill
A day before May’s announcement, government whip Mark Spencer told the House of Commons that ministers would publish the Withdrawal Agreement Bill -- designed to implement May’s deal -- in the week beginning June 3. The government had “hoped” to put it to a vote on June 7, he said, but hadn’t yet secured the agreement it needed to do so.
Asked on Tuesday about those plans, May’s spokesman, James Slack, told reporters: “We now have to reflect on the fact that we’re in a different position.” He repeated the line when asked if that meant the bill now wouldn’t be put to Parliament.
May faced growing hostility from both rank-and-file Conservative members of Parliament and her own ministers over proposals she made to try to facilitate the passage of her Brexit bill using opposition support. That included the offer of a temporary customs union with the EU and giving MPs a vote on whether to call another referendum on Brexit.
Since then, at least 10 Tories have said they’ll stand in the leadership contest. Johnson, former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt have all said they’ll seek to renegotiate the Brexit deal with the EU, focusing on the contentious Irish backstop, which aims to ensure the U.K. border with Ireland stays open after Brexit.
The bloc has repeatedly said it won’t reopen the agreement.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Mark Williams
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.