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Battle looms to stop no-deal Brexit as UK-EU relations cool

AP / Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wednesday, 7 August 2019, 9:52AM


Britain's prime minister says the U.K. is leaving the European Union in less than 90 days, either with a divorce deal, or — it seems increasingly likely — without one. With Britain and the bloc each accusing the other of torpedoing an agreement, pro-EU British lawmakers are gearing up for a last-ditch effort to prevent a no-deal Brexit. But it's not clear whether Parliament can halt a prime minister who insists the U.K. will leave on Oct. 31 "come what may."

"In theory it can," British constitutional expert Vernon Bogdanor told the BBC. "In practice it is very, very difficult."



The two sides are accusing each other of torpedoing talks. Michael Gove, the British minister in charge of no-deal preparations, said Tuesday he was "deeply saddened" that the EU was "refusing to negotiate with the U.K." But EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said the bloc's door was open "should the United Kingdom wish to hold talks and clarify its position in more detail."




"The odds of an election are rising as backbench MPs contemplate ways in which they can frustrate Johnson's plans," said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. "We're moving to a situation where there is unlikely to be much progress in August. September and October are going to be frantic. And that's an understatement."

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Monday that he would call a no-confidence vote in the government once Parliament returns, to "make sure this government is not allowed to take this country out of the union (EU) with no deal."

A no-confidence vote has a good chance of success, since Johnson's Conservatives have a working majority of just one vote, and some Conservative lawmakers are deeply opposed to a no-deal Brexit. If the government lost, it would have 14 days to overturn the result by winning a new vote. If it could not, an election would be held.



That would be controversial, though it's unclear whether it would be illegal.

Conservative lawmaker Dominic Grieve said Tuesday that the idea "that if you lose a vote of no confidence you will simply sit it out and barricade yourself in Downing Street" was "simply breathtaking, stupid, infantile — and it won't work."



Maddy Thimont Jack, a senior researcher on Brexit at the Institute for Government think-tank, said Britain was heading for a "war of attrition between the government and Parliament" with unpredictable consequences.

"We don't know how far Boris Johnson would be willing to challenge the constitutional conventions that we usually expect to see," she said. "That's just a huge, huge unknown."

ON AIR: Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

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