UK parliament rejects May’s Brexit deal

Members of the UK parliament voted against Theresa May’s Brexit agreement on Tuesday, complicating UK’s departure from the European Union on March 29.

Parliament members voted 432 to 202 to reject the deal, giving May a crushing defeat with a 230 margin.

“The House has spoken, and the government will listen,” May said following the vote, even as she predicted “more uncertainty, more bitterness and more rancor”.

The vote plunges the already divided country deeper into turmoil as it tries to solve several key issues in the Brexit process.

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn called it “the greatest defeat” for a British government since the 1920s. 

“This is a catastrophic defeat for this government,” he said, as he called for a no-confidence vote against May’s government.

Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from London, said that with May’s defeat, a no-confidence vote is expected on Wednesday night.

In her final plea to the parliament, May said that a vote against the deal “is nothing more than uncertainty, division and the very real risk of ‘No Deal’ or ‘No Brexit’ at all.”

“We can choose unity over division,” she said before the vote.

“I believe that we have a duty to deliver on that referendum vote. And to do so in a way that protects people’s jobs, and protects our security, and protects our union.”

Economically disastrous

With MPs disagreeing with the deal, the country could face a so-called “no deal” Brexit that critics claim will be economically disastrous, or a second referendum on the deal or even whether to remain in the EU after all.

May, who now has three days to bring a revised plan back to parliament, will now most likely seek concessions from the EU, then put her deal to parliament a second time.

However, the EU has said it will not negotiate the deal again.

With the margin of her defeat, it is is more unlikely that EU would give May more concessions, Al Jazeera’s David Chater, reporting from Brussels, said.

“There may be little Theresa May can discuss with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.”

Tuesday’s vote was initially scheduled to be held on December 11 but was postponed by May when it became clear she faced certain defeat.

Last week, May warned British lawmakers that if the plan was rejected, a catastrophe would follow.

“Doing so would be a catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust in our democracy,” she wrote.

The UK is poised to leave the EU on March 29, two years after it triggered Article 50, the exit clause in the EU’s constitution, and kick-started arduous negotiations with European leaders over a divorce deal.

However, since reaching a deal in November, the agreement has come under fire from across the political spectrum, with opponents of the EU seeking a cleaner break and pro-European legislators pressing for a second vote on membership of the bloc.

A second referendum, however, has been opposed by both May and main opposition leader Corbyn.