(London, Jan 15,2019): The House of Commons is all set to vote on the deal, steeped in criticism, on Tuesday. It is possible that some of the Conservatives will not vote for May''s deal on Tuesday as the agreement has already led to a flurry of resignations, with the most recent one being a darkly symbolic departure of a pro Brexit government whip Gareth Johnson, a lawmaker responsible for ensuring that party members attend important parliament sessions and vote along party lines.
Johnson announced he was stepping down as a whip a day before the crucial vote and cited his objections to the withdrawal deal as the reason. It is also possible that a few Labour lawmakers might break ranks and vote for May''s deal.
However, there are reportedly only a handful of those. Paul Murphy, a member of the Irish Parliament for Dublin South-West, is skeptical about the deal''s chances to pass. "I don''t see it [the deal passing] ... it would require some very unexpected event to take place," Murphy told Russian news agency, when asked if May''s deal would be able to survive the vote.
After the deal was rescheduled in December, May engaged in further talks with the European Union. However, Brussels made one thing agonizingly clear ? there would be no reopening of negotiations. Earlier on Monday, a letter from May to President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, was released, as well as their reply. May said in her letter that the bloc need not fear that London would use the Irish border as "leverage" in trade negotiations.
EU leaders, in turn, have promised that they would prioritize discussions of potential alternatives to the backstop, adding that this safety net solution in no way encroached upon the Belfast Agreement. The UK prime minister also made a speech in Stoke-on-Trent on Monday, stressing that the parliament rejecting her deal could lead to either no deal or no Brexit at all. Irish border may be the most-discussed issue, but Wales and Scotland also have some grievances to air. A lot of dissatisfaction with the countries'' dependence on the central government is seeping through in these comments.
Scotland has been particularly unhappy as it actually voted Remain in 2016 by 62 percent against 38. The talk of a second referendum on Scottish independence was resurrected amid Brexit referendum fallout, but London has stymied the discussion. In November, the UK government was defeated in Scotland''s highest court, which denied London the right to appeal its referral of a Brexit case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The Court of Session in Edinburgh referred the case on United Kingdom potentially unilaterally reversing Brexit to the ECJ in September. The ECJ has since ruled that the United Kingdom can unilaterally revoke its notification of withdrawal from the European Union as long as the withdrawal agreement has not entered force or, barring a deal, within two years since the notice was given.
The United Kingdom is currently expected to leave the bloc on March 29, 2019, but it remains to be seen whether it will be with a deal or not.
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