Speaker deals blow to May Brexit vote plan

Significant change must be made to proposals

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s hopes of securing a third parliamentary vote on her plan to take the country out of the European Union have been dealt a heavy blow after the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow ruled that the same piece of legislation could not be put forward for a vote again unless significant changes were made.

The process known as Brexit is scheduled to take place on March 29th but nearly three years after taking over as prime minister, May has yet to come up with a withdrawal plan which is acceptable to Westminster, with the one she has drawn up having already been heavily rejected twice.

The first vote, in January, ended in a defeat by 230 votes, and a second vote on revised legislation last week saw another heavy loss for the government, this time by 149 votes.

Bercow said that because of legislative changes made to the plan between the first and second votes, "it could credibly be argued that it was a different proposition."

However, citing parliamentary rules dating back centuries, he said it was not permissible for there to be another vote on the substance of the second one, unless it was "fundamentally different. Not different in terms of wording, but different in terms of substance."

May has previously said that if her deal was finally approved, she would ask leaders of the other 27 EU member states to extend the Brexit deadline, currently March 29, until June 30, in the hope that she could get the necessary Brexit legislation passed.

If she cannot, however, May will have to seek a longer extension which would mean Britain being involved in the European Parliament elections taking place at the end of May, which her government is keen to avoid.

Prior to this unexpected turn of events, May had been seeking the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, known as they DUP, for her plans.

Since the general election of June 2017, the government has relied on the support of the DUP’s 10 MPs for a majority, but that is only on a so-called“confidence and supply agreement”, and in the two Brexit votes so far, they have voted against her plans.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said there would only be a third vote if "enough of our (Conservative) colleagues and the DUP are prepared to support it."

Hammond refused to rule out a financial settlement for Northern Ireland being part of any talks between the parties, but the DUP said regional funding had not been talked about.

“We are in discussions with the government to ensure Northern Ireland is not separated out from the rest of the United Kingdom as we leave the European Union,”said a party spokesman.

“Contrary to some reports, we are not discussing cash. There are still issues to be addressed in our discussions."

The DUP represents Northern Ireland’s Unionist community, which is strongly loyal to the United Kingdom.

The issue of the frontier between Northern Ireland, part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state, has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks in Brexit negotiations.

For the last two decades, there has been no physical frontier or border checkpoints, which is one of the outcomes of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a peace settlement which brought an end to years of violent civil conflict in Northern Ireland, a period known as The Troubles.

There are fears that reintroducing a hard border could reignite old tensions and lead to renewed violence. However, leaving Northern Ireland, part of the UK, with an open border with an EU country would be seen by some as giving it a different status to the rest of the UK, which is totally unacceptable to Unionists.