British Prime Minister Theresa May’s divided cabinet is headed for a showdown Tuesday, after lawmakers again failed to find majority support for a way forward for Brexit.
Cabinet members will lock heads for five hours of talks to decide what the next step should be – with just 10 days to go before the UK risks crashing out of the EU without a deal.
The failure of the four so-called indicative votes, which aimed to find an alternative to May’s own defeated Brexit plan, has let to renewed talk of general elections.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said a no-deal Brexit was becoming “day after day more likely”.
The motion that came closest to reaching a majority involved keeping Britain in a permanent customs union with the EU. It lost by just three votes.
Conservative MP Nick Boles immediately quit his party after failing to persuade his colleagues to support his “common market 2.0” plan, which would have seen the UK join the European Free Trade Association and European Economic Area.
I am resigning the Conservative whip with immediate effect. The Conservative Party has shown itself to be incapable of compromise so I will sit as an Independent Progressive Conservative.
Nick Boles MP (@NickBoles) 1 avril 2019
Following Monday night’s deadlock in parliament, May could decide to put her own Brexit plan, which has been rejected three times, before the House of Commons for a fourth time.
Cabinet ministers had been instructed to abstain from Monday’s voting process.
