Despite vehement denials from Downing Street this morning, the Prime Minister is to postpone Tuesday evening’s key Brexit vote on endorsing, or not, the terms of the U.K.’s split from the European Union.
The pound fell to the lowest since June 2017, currently trading at around €1.10 as the market reacted to the possibility of a no-deal, 'hard' Brexit.
The size of the government’s predicted defeat in the House, with over 100 MPs opposing May's Brexit plan, would have been a humiliating blow to the Prime Minister, possibly one from which she could not recover.
May is to make a statement to Parliament on Brexit at 3:30 this afternoon and will postpone the vote, giving a packed House her reasons for making this last-minute decision.
The prospect of serious turmoil, after predictions of an MPs’ revolt on Tuesday night, has forced the premier into a U-turn over widespread concerns that the unresolved position on Northern Ireland makes a coherent Brexit far from achievable.
The EU's position is that it will not reopen negotiations so, if the vote had gone ahead and the MPs voted down May’s Brexit proposals, the U.K. would be heading for a hard Brexit on March 29th next year with the prospect of political and economic disturbance leading to questions over the Prime Minister’s continuing tenure.
Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said May’s postponement was, "pathetic cowardice by a PM and government that have run out of road and now need to get out of the way."
The door is opening for Labour to topple the government as May has lost the support of the Northern Irish unionists who remain critical of the proposed Brexit deal.
The European Court of Justice’s opinion, issued this morning, (HERE) is that the UK is entitled to cancel Brexit without the permission of the remaining 27 EU countries. Brussels says it would welcome the cancellation of Brexit, with a half-way position being another referendum.
For Gollum's view, click HERE
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