BRITISH MPs HAVE voted in favour of delaying the date the UK is due to leave the European Union, meaning Brexit may no longer happen on 29 March.
Although the House of Commons hasn’t voted for anything specific, they have decided that the UK needs more time to ask how it wants to exit the bloc.
The decision gives May yet another reason to hold a vote on her Brexit withdrawal deal, with 413 parliamentarians voting in favour of delaying Brexit, with 202 voting against.
It was the first victory of the week for the embattled Prime Minister, and showed she has a small grasp on the increasingly rebellious Conservative Party.
Among those who opposed the Prime Minister’s extension were Cabinet ministers Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Andrea Leadsom, and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay (who, bizarrely, had argued in favour of the motion in the debate earlier today).
The government’s chief whip Julian Smith abstained from the vote.
Former ministers Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab (an ex-Brexit Secretary) also voted against the extension, but the original Brexit secretary, David Davis, voted to back May’s motion and delay Brexit.
It’s now up to the EU to agree to grant an extension, and it needs the agreement of all EU Council members – ie the leaders of remaining 27 EU countries – to sign off
Some of the headlines from tomorrow’s newspapers include the phrases “Cabinet split”, “boosts May’s hand”, “just a little more time”, and “one last roll of the dice”.
With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha and Daragh Brophy
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