British MPs seek new path for Brexit after deal rejected again

TIL Desk/World/London/ British MPs will attempt to chart a new Brexit path on Monday after rejecting Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time, leaving her strategy in tatters and the country in limbo. With less than two weeks to go until the day Britain risks crashing out of the European Union, MPs will hold a series of votes to try and find a majority-backed plan to end the current crisis.

Britain voted by 52 percent to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum but the process has been mired in divisions between Brexit supporters over the terms of the divorce and what kind of future ties to seek. The government struck a deal with the EU in November but parliament has refused to ratify it, forcing the government to seek a delay to the originally planned departure date of March 29.

The EU’s offer of an extension until May 22 was conditional on MPs approving the deal last week. Despite May’s promise to step down if they voted for the deal — an attempt to get Brexit hardliners to vote for it — they failed to do so.  The government must now make a new request to the European Union at an extraordinary summit on April 10 or leave the bloc without a deal on April 12 with potentially chaotic economic consequences.