Theresa May makes progress on Brexit as Labour tilts towards a referendum
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May is making progress on winning Brexit concessions from the European Union, a senior minister said on Sunday, as British lawmakers plotted to delay Britain’s March 29 exit and the Labour Party tilted towards another referendum.
As the United Kingdom’s labyrinthine Brexit crisis goes down to the line, May is making a last-ditch effort to get changes to the divorce package before lawmakers try on Wednesday to grab control of Brexit in a vote .
While May insists Brexit will go ahead as planned, some of her senior ministers have openly threatened to side with rebels to stop a potentially disorderly no-deal exit and the opposition Labour Party indicated it could back another referendum.
The EU has ruled out reopening the Withdrawal Agreement, though both sides are looking at a possible legal addendum to reassure lawmakers who worry the Irish border backstop could keep Britain trapped in the EU’s orbit for years to come.
“I understand that progress is being made,” said British Environment Secretary Michael Gove, the most senior Brexiteer in May’s government.
“It could be a time limit, I think it could be a unilateral exit mechanism,” said Gove, adding that other options including a protocol or an addition to the treaty setting out that the United Kingdom would not be bound by the backstop indefinitely.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the wording of the future relationship declaration could be changed to help May get the deal through parliament.
May is due on Sunday to attend an EU summit with the League of Arab States in Sharm el-Sheikh where she will seek to make more progress ahead of a potentially crucial series of votes in the British parliament on Feb 27.
Before she set off, three members of her cabinet publicly split with government policy and said they would side with rebels and opposition parties to stop a no-deal Brexit.
REFERENDUM?
With the clock ticking down to March 29, Britain is in the deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973.
Both Britain’s major parties fractured last week, losing lawmakers who cast their former parties as broken remnants of a political system that was in meltdown.
In an indication of the gravity of the crisis, the European Union’s agriculture chief said he expected Britain to seek assistance to avoid disruption to food imports in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Senior figures in the Labour Party said on Sunday it was moving closer to supporting another Brexit referendum and could do so as soon as early as this week.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has so far stuck to Labour policy to keep the option of a second referendum “on the table” if May’s government fails to secure a deal with Brussels that can break an impasse in parliament, preferring a new election or his own proposed deal.
But when asked whether this would be the week Labour comes out in support of a second referendum, the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, told BBC TV: “It might be ... We are getting closer to that point.”
“We are heading in that direction but there is still more play in the day’s ahead,” he said.
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
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