EU leaders will reportedly offer one last extension to Prime Minister Theresa May with which to pass her twice-failed Brexit deal.
This comes as the March 29 deadline looms ever-closer.
Recent events have further complicated the Gordian Knot of the UK’s Brexit saga. One is the decision by Speaker of the House John Bercow (formerly a Conservative MP) to block a third vote on the May deal barring ‘substantial changes’ in the text. Bercow’s stance seems to have caught the May administration off-guard, but it’s responding the only way it knows how: by powering through with its original plan, even if that means breaking longstanding parliamentary conventions. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay told a BBC radio program on Tuesday that MPs would find their way to a third vote one way or another.
Should this third vote be held, conventional media logic dictates that its success hinges on support from the 10 Democratic Unionist (DUP) MPs that are propping up the May government. However, the second parliamentary vote on the May deal was rejected by a whopping 149 – a number that dwarfs the DUP contingent.
For the sake of trying to clarify an extremely complex and fluid situation, here are the major moving parts as we (maybe) approach the Brexit endgame:
