British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday said that the United Kingdom may never leave the European Union if its MPs vote against the Brexit deal. British MPs in the House of Commons will vote on the deal on March 12.
A vote against the deal would mean “not completing Brexit and getting on with all the other important issues people care about, just yet more months and years arguing”, May told an audience of energy workers in Grimsby, a North Sea fishing port, The Guardian reported. “If we go down that road, we might never leave the EU at all.”
“My message to those MPs who agree with me that we should not risk that is simple: the only certain way to avoid it is to back the deal the government has secured with EU on Tuesday,” she added. “Let’s get it done.”
“Reject it and no one knows what will happen,” May said, according to AFP. “We may not leave the EU for many months, we may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all.” The British prime minister said that a vote to reject the deal will “trigger a moment of crisis”.
If parliamentarians reject the deal on March 12, they will vote on March 13 on whether to exit the European Union on March 29 without a deal. If such an exit is rejected, then MPs will vote on the following day on whether to ask the European Union to postpone Brexit.
On January 30, MPs had voted 317 to 301 to order May to seek new terms with the bloc. However, last month, they rejected her negotiating strategy. On January 16, the British Parliament had voted against the deal May had negotiated with European Union officials. The next day, she survived a no-confidence vote 325 to 306.
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