The situation was summed up by the BBC’s Newsnight political editor, Nicholas Watt.
Today, March 29, 2019, was the Brexit deadline originally set by Theresa May when she invoked Article 50 of the EU Treaty two years ago. However, the UK will remain a EU member, for now, because the House of Commons rejected the prime minister’s deal with Brussels. Again.
On January 15, MPs voted against May’s deal by 432 to 202.
On March 12, they voted it down a second time, by 391 to 242.
For today’s vote, May attempted to sweeten the deal by excising the non-binding political statement from it, and leaving only the withdrawal agreement for MPs to approve or reject.
In what seemed like a strange twist, she also promised to resign if the House of Commons approved it.
Her resignation would have opened the door for one of the hard core Brexit wizards, like Boris Johnson, to take control of the post-Brexit negotiations with the EU, giving them a chance to scrap the terms of her deal during the 21-month transition period, and replacing them with what they’d prefer, which is no-deal at all.
And while rabid Tory Brexiteer and 10 Downing Street hopefuls like Jacob Rees-Mogg, Dominic Raab, Iain Duncan Smith, and Boris Johnson, did turn about 180 degrees and vote for May’s deal, today, they didn’t drag enough of their followers along for the ride.
Once again, their con job has failed.