Brexit vote: Lawmakers reject Theresa May's EU exit plan

LONDON – British lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to take the nation out of the European Union, an outcome that could delay or derail Brexit and threatens May's leadership. 

May lost by 230 votes, one of the largest parliamentary defeats inflicted on a British government in nearly 100 years. In a short statement after the vote, May said Parliament should hold a confidence vote in her leadership, pre-empting an expected move by opposition parties to seek her ouster in the event of a large defeat. 

Though the loss – 432-202 in the House of Commons – was widely expected, the scale of her defeat was unclear, and her leadership is under siege.

Lawmakers will consider Wednesday whether to hold the confidence vote. 

"EU citizens here and U.K. citizens in the EU deserve clarity as soon as possible, as do businesses and ordinary people," May said. 

Despite the outcome, Britain still faces an impressive array of Brexit-related possibilities: more votes, a new prime minister or government, a postponed or shelved exit from the EU, a withdrawal in name only – or no exit at all. 

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the confidence vote would allow Parliament to "give its verdict on the sheer incompetence" of May's government.

The U.K. is scheduled to depart the EU in less than two months, but negotiations have dragged on for months, and little has been achieved to solve the U.K.'s main existential crisis over Brexit: Half the country wants in, the other half out, while the majority of lawmakers want to respect the Brexit referendum's democratic outcome but say the country is better off inside the 28-nation political bloc. 

President Donald Trump criticized May's Brexit plan, and the two leaders have had an awkward relationship that strained a historic "special" alliance between the countries that stretches back decades. May publicly disagreed with Trump on a range of geopolitical issues, from his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal to his immigration policies. If May loses a confidence vote, a general election probably would be held. 

Another scenario is that Britain leaves the EU without a deal in place. 

Analysts predict that if that happens, it will significantly harm the economy. The Bank of England warned that the exit could plunge Britain into its deepest recession in nearly a century. Three million EU nationals who live and work in Britain under EU "freedom of movement" laws and 1.3 million Britons who do the same in other EU nations would effectively become illegal overnight.

Long-standing EU legislation covering everything from food hygiene to the running of ports would be put on hold. 

The prime minister lost the vote because many lawmakers, including from May's own ruling Conservative Party, objected to the deal she negotiated because they said it doesn't go far enough to disentangle Britain's economic and political ties to the EU.

Among the concerns: an unresolved question over the land border between Northern Ireland (part of Britain) and Ireland (part of the EU). Decades of peace between Northern Ireland’s Irish Catholic community and its British Protestant one have been facilitated by the free trade and travel across that border that EU membership allows.

May survived a no-confidence vote in her leadership called by members of her party late last year who threatened to oust her from power.

She delayed a vote on her EU deal because it was unlikely to pass. She opposes holding a second referendum on Britain's EU membership. Brexit passed in the referendum in 2016 by 52 percent to 48 percent. 

Tuesday's contest does not spell automatic disaster for May's leadership or Brexit. If she survives a confidence vote, she'll have three days to devise a backup plan. "It is reasonable to expect that another parliamentary vote could be an option," analysts at Rabobank wrote in a research note. 

One vote May couldn't rely on was Tulip Siddiq's. 

Labour lawmaker Siddiq delayed the planned cesarean-section birth of her second child by two days to vote against May's deal and entered Parliament in a wheelchair. 

"If my son enters the world even one day later than the doctors advised but it’s a world with a better chance of a strong relationship between Britain and Europe, then that’s worth fighting for," the 36-year-old told Britain's Evening Standard.

Before the vote, May urged her fellow parliamentarians to back her deal.

"This is the most significant vote that any of us will ever be part of in our political careers," she said as five days of pre-vote debate ended. "The time has now come for all of us in this House to make a decision … a decision that each of us will have to justify and live with for many years to come."

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