U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government won a confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday, clearing the way for her to attempt to forge a consensus among lawmakers on a Brexit divorce agreement.
Lawmakers voted 325 to 306 that they have confidence in May’s government, just 24 hours after they handed her Brexit deal a crushing defeat that left Britain’s exit from from the European Union in disarray 10 weeks before it is due to leave.
With the clock ticking down to March 29, the date set in law for Brexit, the United Kingdom is now 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.
May pledged to work with senior politicians across Parliament to find a compromise that would avoid a disorderly no-deal Brexit or another referendum on membership. But critics said she was not budging from a deal that had alienated all sides of the debate.
John McDonnell, finance spokesperson for the opposition Labour Party, said May could eventually get a deal through Parliament if she negotiated a compromise with his party. Labour wants a permanent customs union with the EU, a close relationship with its single market, and greater protections for workers and consumers.
But her spokeperson said it was still government policy to be outside an EU customs union, while May, an initial opponent of Brexit who won the top job in the turmoil following the 2016 referendum vote, insisted Britain would leave the bloc as planned on March 29, leaving little time for a solution to be found.
Watch: U.K. future uncertain as Brexit deadline looms
Yet, Tuesday’s crushing defeat appears to have killed off her two-year strategy of forging an amicable divorce in which a status-quo transition period would be followed by Britain operating an independent trade policy alongside close ties to the EU, the world’s biggest single market.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said she was now leading a “zombie government.” Labour says its aim is to win power and negotiate Brexit on better terms.
However, many Labour members want to see another referendum with an option to cancel Brexit, and the party says it is ruling nothing out if it fails to bring May down.
New deal?
Sterling jumped by more than a cent against the U.S. dollar on news of May’s Brexit deal defeat on Tuesday and was holding close to that level on Wednesday. Many investors see the prospect of a no-deal exit receding as Parliament hardens its stance against it.
May has said cancelling Brexit is likelier than leaving with no deal, but has repeatedly described any failure to carry out the mandate of the 2016 referendum as “catastrophic” for democracy.
“Should the next step be a general election? I believe that is the worst thing we could do, it would deepen division when we need unity,” she told Parliament.
Watch: Brits stockpile food in case Brexit causes shortages
Ever since Britain voted by 52-48 per cent to leave the EU in a referendum in June 2016, the political class has been debating how to leave the European project forged by France and Germany after the devastation of the Second World War.
Companies warned of catastrophic job losses and chaos at ports if there was a no-deal Brexit that would see trade with the EU switch to World Trade Organization rules, which many argue could disrupt supply chains relying on friction-free trade.
“We would now urge ruling out a no-deal immediately as the only option with majority support in Parliament,” Britain’s biggest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, said in a statement.
‘Time for playing games is now over’
Other members of the EU, which combined has about six times the economic might of the U.K., called for discussion but indicated there was little chance of fundamental change to the deal May had negotiated. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said there was not much time left to find a Brexit solution and “the time for playing games is now over.”
For the EU, already reeling from successive crises over debt and refugees, Brexit is possibly the biggest blow in its 60-year history, though its 27 other members have shown remarkable unity over Britain’s exit.
While some EU leaders and many British lawmakers have suggested that Britain might want to change its mind, Britain’s leaders are concerned that to stop Brexit could alienate the 17.4 million people who voted to leave.
Brexit supporters anticipate some short-term economic pain but say Britain will then thrive if cut loose from what they cast as a doomed experiment in German-dominated unity. Opponents of Brexit say it is folly that will weaken the West, make Britain poorer and torpedo what remains of its post-imperial clout.
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