BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2019) The next day after the UK government's withdrawal agreement suffered a crushing defeat in the House of Commons, UK Prime Minister Theresa May told the parliament she was prepared to listen to the lawmakers' opinion on Brexit, while Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn argued his case for a no-confidence motion.
After her deal was rejected by 230 votes in a historic defeat on Tuesday, the prime minister said that, while the House of Commons clearly showed that it did not support the deal, "tonight's vote tells us nothing about what it does support."
She pledged that the government would allow time for a no-confidence motion debate if the official opposition or other opposition parties wanted to table such a request. The Labour Party, the official opposition, took advantage of the opportunity.
On Wednesday, May stressed that an election was the last thing the United Kingdom should do amid Brexit uncertainty, while Corbyn argued that the government had to call an election since it was unable to pass its laws through the parliament.
Whether May survives the vote later on Wednesday or not, the fate of Brexit will remain uncertain for those inside and outside of the United Kingdom.
Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief negotiator, stressed at the European parliament's session, that the orderly Brexit was still a priority for Brussels, but pointed to the heightened risk of a no-deal scenario.
Brussels and Paris have sent a clear signal that the deal was not open for renegotiation.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas remarked that there did not seem to be any new solutions, adding that it was now up to London to propose a way out.
"Everybody agrees on the fact that the EU and UK should avoid a hard Brexit ... Above all, Germany would have to expect economic disadvantages from a hard Brexit, if only for the car industry; our exports of high-quality cars and machine tools would suffer," Alice Weidel, the head of the Bundestag faction of the Alternative for Germany party, told Sputnik.
According to Wiedel, the European Union's "undiplomatic attitude in the treaty negotiations over the last months" might be to blame for the strong rejection of the deal in the UK parliament.
This Wednesday morning in Strasbourg, the European Parliament had a debate in plenary session on the UK vote. All regretted the vote, but for different reasons. Notable Brexiteers among European Parliament members from the United Kingdom predictably stole the show.
According to Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), May should have stepped down after she failed to propose an acceptable Brexit agreement and went through the crushing defeat in parliament.
"Mrs May indeed met the deadline imposed by unelected bureaucrat Michel Barnier. She signed the [Irish] backstop agreement on December 8 and showed a total failure of leadership. She behaved like a leader defeated in war. She believed that she had obtained concessions, but it is clear that none is to come. If Theresa May had any sense of honour, she would be gone by lunchtime," Farage said.
UKIP leader Gerard Batten similarly called for May's resignation, adding that "the real plan B is that we leave Europe under our laws, and are going to repeal what does not interest us in the European legislation under our own time scale."
Janice Atkinson, a UK independent member of the European Parliament, exclaimed: "make Britain great again into the great wide world!"
Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, in turn, reiterated Brussels' stance that "there is no room for manoeuvres, to renegotiate Brexit."
Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of another political group of the European Parliament, appealed to UK lawmakers to not "let a 'no-deal' happen," adding that Europe was still "really here to fully engage."
"I tell the British MPs that it is time for cross-party collaboration in Westminster. Find the red lines. We are really here to fully engage. Don't let a 'no-deal' happen," the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe said.
DEEP DIVIDE AHEAD OF CONFIDENCE VOTE
Speaking about future political developments in the United Kingdom, a British executive in Brussels close to the UKIP team, told Sputnik under conditions of anonymity that it was hard to make any predictions amid the deep divide both within the Conservative Party and the Labor camp.
"Nobody can say what will happen now in the major political parties in Westminster. It is clear for the Scottish nationalists or the DUP in Northern Ireland, but the Conservative and Labour parties are both divided, even if it is much worse among the Conservatives," the source said.
The statement comes as the UK House of Commons is poised to debate a no-confidence vote in the government initiated by the opposition Labour Party later on Wednesday. The prime minister has until Monday to present her Plan B on Brexit if she survives the no-confidence vote.
