UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May has said that MPs’ will be able to have a fresh vote on the Brexit deal by March 12, 2019.
Speaking as she travelled to an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt, Mrs. May ruled out holding another so-called “meaningful vote” this week.
But she said “positive” talks with the EU were “still ongoing” and leaving on March 29, was “within our grasp”.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the prime minister of “recklessly running down the clock”.
In a tweet, he said the move was intended to “force MPs’ to choose between her bad deal and a disastrous no deal”.
Theresa May is putting the country at risk by recklessly running down the clock to force MPs to choose between her bad deal and a disastrous No Deal.
Labour will work with MPs across the Commons to prevent No Deal, break the deadlock and build support for our alternative plan.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 24, 2019
Labour, he said, would “work with MPs’ across the Commons to prevent no deal, break the deadlock and build support for our alternative plan”.
On the plane to Sharm el-Sheikh for a summit between EU and Arab league leaders, Mrs. May said her team would be returning to the Belgian capital on Tuesday for further talks.
“As a result of that, we won’t bring a meaningful vote to Parliament this week, but we will ensure that that happens by 12 March,” she added.
Mrs. May has already met European Council President Donald Tusk for talks after landing in Egypt and will meet other EU leaders on the fringes of the summit later.
She said negotiations were continuing over the backstop – the controversial policy that aims to prevent a hard border returning to the island of Ireland – after Parliament voted for her to seek “alternative arrangements” to what is set out in her deal.
On Wednesday, MPs’ will get another chance to put forward a range of amendments to show what direction they want Brexit to take.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned on Sunday that his government could not be asked to “compromise on something as fundamental as the peace process”, on which the border played a key part.
He accused the UK government of wanting to change the backstop to “placate a group in the Conservative Party who are insisting on moving the prime minister away from her own policies”, and reiterated that the EU would not re-open the withdrawal agreement.
But he told Sky News they would try to “provide reassurance and clarification for the British Parliament to allow them to ratify this deal”.
Speaking from the summit on Sunday, Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said it “would be good to postpone Brexit” if the deal was not agreed by the beginning of March.
