In the latest Brexit development, the House of Commons voted today to push back the Brexit date by 3 months. With this new parliamentary vote, British MPs have decided to extend Article 50 by 413 votes to 202 and allow more time than was originally planned before Brexit comes into effect.
Before the vote, the official Brexit day was scheduled for the end of this month, 29th March 2019. The new date of Brexit Theresa May was pushing for was three months later, on 30th June 2019, but in the end Brussels has compromised on the new Brexit dates of 12th April 2019 if there is no deal and 22nd May 2019 if there is a deal. It is still unclear what will happen with the following transitional period, which was supposed to last until the end of 2020.
There will be no second referendum on Brexit
Another option that was on the table today was a second Brexit referendum, but Labour have refused to back calls for one. MPs in Westminster were allowed to vote on the issue of a second referendum and overwhelmingly rejected the motion by 334 votes to 85.
Why did MPs vote to postpone Brexit?
The aim of this new decision by Westminster to push back the date for Brexit is intended avoid a hard Brexit by allowing the Prime Minister, Theresa May, more time to work out a new Brexit deal with the EU that UK politicians can vote for. Until now, Mrs. May has brought back two deals from Europe but the British parliament has voted them both down. With this new delay, it is hoped she can return and bring back a better deal that MPs can get behind, so that Britain doesn’t leave the European Union with no deal.
That’s the theory, anyway. As we know, the Brexit news can change radically from day to day, so keep watching this space.