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Lawmakers to decide if new Brexit referendum needed

Updated: 2019-05-21 23:47

British Prime Minister Theresa May, delivers a speech setting out a new proposal for her Brexit deal in central London, Britain, May 21, 2019. [Photo/IC]

LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May says Parliament will get the chance to vote on whether to hold a new referendum on Britain's EU membership, as she tries to get lawmakers to back her divorce deal with the European Union.

May says Tuesday that an EU withdrawal agreement bill that she plans to bring to Parliament next month will include a provision for a vote on whether to hold a new public poll on whether to leave. That is a key demand of many opposition lawmakers.

May is offering concessions in what she says is a "last chance" to secure an orderly British departure from the bloc.

The deal that she struck with the EU has been rejected by UK lawmakers three times already.

British Prime Minister Theresa May secured backing from her Cabinet for tweaks to her proposed European Union divorce terms that she hopes can finally get Parliament's approval for her thrice-rejected Brexit deal.

The Cabinet met for three hours to work out details of what May has called a "bold offer" to win support for her Brexit agreement.

May was due to give details of what's being billed as her "new deal" in a speech later Tuesday.

But it's unlikely changes agreed by the government — whose members are divided over the terms of Britain's EU departure — will be sweeping enough to change lawmakers' minds on a divorce deal that has been resoundingly rejected by both pro-EU and pro-Brexit lawmakers.

Britain was due to leave the EU on March 29, but the bloc extended the deadline until Oct 31 amid the political impasse. Talks on securing a compromise between May's Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party broke down last week.

AP

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