UK PM May plans watered-down Brexit vote to secure departure delay

Confusion at May's new gambit

But angry and confused lawmakers from the opposition Labour Party demanded to know whether the government's motion was legal. Lawmaker Stephen Doughty said: "This just looks to me like trickery of the highest order."

On Wednesday, May offered to resign if her Brexit package was passed, securing support from some high-profile critics in her party. But the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government, said it still opposed the deal, denying her votes she desperately needs to pass it.

"Things change by the hour here but I’m not expecting any last minute rabbits out of the hat," DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds told the BBC on Thursday.

May's deal means Britain would leave the EU single market and customs union as well as EU political bodies. But it requires some EU rules to apply unless ways can be found in the future to ensure no border posts need to be rebuilt between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

Many Conservative rebels and the DUP object to this "Irish backstop", saying it risks binding Britain to the EU for years.

A bid on Wednesday by lawmakers to seize control of the Brexit process in the face of government disarray with a series of "indicative votes" on alternatives to May's deal yielded no majority for any of them.

However the option calling for a referendum on any departure deal, and another suggesting a UK-wide customs union with the EU, won more votes than May's deal did two weeks ago. Lawmakers will have another go at the more popular options on Monday.

Labour Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said that May's vow to resign if her deal was passed meant Britain was headed to a "blindfold Brexit", which would be exacerbated by a vote which did not encompass the political declaration on future relations.

"We would be leaving the EU, but with absolutely no idea where we are heading," Starmer said. "That cannot be acceptable and Labour will not vote for it."

With May floundering in her effort to get her Brexit package approved, EU officials and diplomats said on Friday Britain was more likely than ever to tumble chaotically out of the EU.

They said the bloc would push ahead with contingency preparations next week and was gearing up for an emergency Brexit summit the week after, probably on April 10.

Reuters