The British pound dropped sharply on the morning of “the day that should have been Brexit” after a Labour Party spokesman confirmed that the opposition party would oppose PM Theresa May’s “meaningful vote 2.5”, setting the third vote on May’s unpopular withdrawal deal with the EU up for almost certain failure.
Sterling dropped to $1.3009, leaving it down roughly 2% for March, though it remained, no pun intended, up 2% on the quarter, making it the best performer among major currencies.
That might come as a surprise to some, seeing as the public has been treated to one Brexit-related disappointment after the next, with May’s deal having already been voted down twice by wide margins. Just this pass week, an indicative vote on possible Brexit alternatives showed that not one would received majority support in the Commons.
May and her team have warned MPs that if her deal is defeated again on Friday, they will risk delaying Brexit by months or even years. Then again, there’s also the risk that the UK will crash out of the EU (though May and her team have largely glossed over that possibility). International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said Friday that losing the vote would mean a longer extension to Brexit.
The DUP, the 10 unionist MPs from Northern Ireland who help shore up the Tories Parliamentary majority, have already said they will oppose the vote. And many of the ERG leaders, including Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg who said earlier this week that they would back the deal to prevent a longer Brexit delay have flipped-flopped on their stance.
In order to meet Speaker John Bercow’s test that “substantial” alterations be made to the withdrawal agreement for it to be brought up for another vote, May decided to separate the WA from the non-binding political declaration – and EU officials confirmed that only the WA would need to be accepted for the UK to leave the EU.
Given that it’s headed for defeat, observers might wonder why May is even bothering to bring it up for another vote. In an explainer for the BBC, political editor Laura Kuenssberg explained that it’s another way for May of “extending the road before it finally runs out.”
But the vote, on what was meant to be Brexit Day, is a request to MPs to allow her to keep going, to carry on pursuing her route, with its well-documented flaws.
There’s a challenge there too, not just to her own Brexiteers but to Labour and the other opposition parties, to say “no” to a long delay to our departure from the EU, the last moment when Number 10 believes anything even approaching a timely exit can be guaranteed.
There are signs now that many Eurosceptic MPs are ready to say “yes” – not because they suddenly have realised Mrs May’s deal is perfect, but because more of them officially realise that it is the clearest break from the EU they can realistically hope for.
Yet her Northern Irish allies are not persuaded. Labour, even though they have sometimes accepted that what’s on the table – the divorce deal – will never be unpicked by the EU, will still, in the main, resist.
As things stand, even though some influential Brexiteers believe there is a chance it will get through, it looks like the prime minister is heading for another loss.
But for Number 10, it is another way of extending the road before it finally runs out.
And in this environment, with control slipping away, that, for Theresa May, is worth a try.
No amendments have been selected for debate before the vote, which is expected to take place at 10:30 am ET (2:30 pm London Time).
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2CLBfBM Tyler Durden