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Agence France-Presse

British Prime Minister Theresa May staked everything on getting her Brexit deal, and its rejection on Tuesday has left her authority severely damaged.
The Conservative leader had already sparked anger and frustration at home and in Brussels for taking the Brexit talks down to the wire.

               
These have now been shown to have failed, with dozens of her own MPs voting for a second time to reject her EU withdrawal agreement.
“The PM has lost all control. If she had an ounce of decency she’d resign,” said opposition Labour lawmaker Lou Haigh.

               British MPs overwhelmingly reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal for second time
            
After her defeat, May continued to insist that her deal was the best option, but said she would – as promised – allow MPs now to vote on whether to leave the EU with no deal.



  

But faced with the prospect of another rebellion, she said Conservative MPs can vote as they choose – a move that commentators said showed how little authority she had over her party.
“For a government not to be able to whip its MPs on one of its absolutely central policies is not exactly … normal,” noted Alice Lilly, senior researcher at the Institute for Government.

               She turned out to have too little courage, imagination or skill to lead the Brexit negotiation 

Spectator magazine
May has made much of her reputation for toughness, gleefully adopting a colleague’s description of her as a “bloody difficult woman”.
But her efforts to seek changes to her own divorce deal just weeks before exit day on March 29, and despite EU warnings that her demands were impossible, have tested MPs’ patience.

               May secures new Brexit deal from EU ahead of crucial vote
            
Pro-European ministers staged a revolt, demanding May offer a vote on delaying Brexit rather than allow Britain to leave with no deal at all.

               
Meanwhile many Eurosceptics are livid at her failure to deliver the decisive divorce she had promised.
“This is a total failure of leadership,” said leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage after Tuesday’s vote. 
May took office after the 2016 referendum, and despite having campaigned to stay in the EU, embraced the cause with the mantra “Brexit means Brexit”.
Her promise to leave the EU’s institutions and end free movement of workers delighted Eurosceptic MPs, but caused dismay among many pro-Europeans.

               UK shoppers stockpile food, spend less in pubs as Brexit nears
            
The splits in her Conservative party became a serious problem after a snap election in June 2017, when May lost her parliamentary majority.
She was forced to strike a deal with Northern Ireland’s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and since then has struggled to keep her party and its allies together.
“At first she appeared to be a unifier, but she turned out to have too little courage, imagination or skill to lead the Brexit negotiations,” said the Conservative-backing Spectator magazine. 
Naturally reserved and reliant on her husband Philip and a few close aides, May often says she is just quietly “getting on with the job”.

               Eyeing post-Brexit trade deal, US mocks EU’s ‘Museum of Agriculture’ model
            
But in the last election, she struggled to engage with voters and was dubbed the “Maybot” after churning out the same answers and speeches over and over again.
Critics complain of similar difficulties in communicating during the Brexit talks.
Matthew Parris, an anti-Brexit former Conservative MP who now writes for The Times, described her as “the living embodiment of the closed door”.
But May has been written off before.
She survived the resignations of a string of high-profile Brexit supporters, notably former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.
May also won a confidence vote in her Conservative party over Brexit in December, making her immune from a similar challenge within a year.
She was forced to promise to quit before the next scheduled election in 2022, however, and even then, one third of her MPs voted to unseat her.
May’s office indicated she had no intention of resigning after Tuesday’s vote. 
James Cleverly, deputy chairman of her Conservative party, said she was driven by her commitment to delivering Brexit.
“The prime minister is having to navigate a very, very difficult course through the unique set of circumstances we are being presented with,” he told the BBC.


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Brexit

‘Total failure’: Brexit defeat leaves British PM Theresa May’s authority in tatters, as Eurosceptics and pro-EU forces unite in anger

British Prime Minister Theresa May (centre) leaves the Houses of Parliament in London on Tuesday evening, after MPs voted 391 to 242 vote against her amended Brexit deal. Photo: EPA

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, center in red, watches as MP's deliver the results of the vote on her governments Brexit deal in the House of Commons, London, Tuesday March 12, 2019. With just 17 days to go, Britain's departure from the European Union was thrown into chaos and doubt Tuesday as Parliament delivered a crushing defeat to Prime Minister Theresa May's European Union divorce deal and to her authority as leader. (Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to lawmakers in parliament, London, Tuesday March 12, 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May's mission to secure Britain's orderly exit from the European Union appeared headed for defeat Tuesday, as lawmakers ignored her entreaties to support her divorce deal and end the political chaos and economic uncertainty that Brexit has unleashed. (Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament via AP)

British MPs overwhelmingly reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal for second time

A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaking to the house after losing the second meaningful vote on the government's Brexit deal, in the House of Commons in London on March 12, 2019. (Photo by - / various sources / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / PRU " - NO USE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, SATIRICAL, MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks after tellers announced the results of the vote Brexit deal in Parliament in London, Britain, March 12, 2019, in this screen grab taken from video. Reuters TV via REUTERS

Anti-Brexit protesters are seen after the Brexit voting outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay

Anti-Brexit supporters react after the Brexit voting outside the Parliament in London. Photo: Reuters/Dylan Martinez

Theresa May secures new Brexit deal from EU ahead of crucial parliament vote – but will rebel British lawmakers back her?

epa07418926 (26/66) A defaced sign designates the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland on the A13 Road near Londonderry in Britain, 01 March 2019. Neither the UK nor the EU wants a hard border, and the Irish backstop is the mechanism that negotiators agreed upon to prevent that from happening. The open border, a now-invisible, 499-kilometer (310-mile) line running through countryside, farmland and bisecting main roads, is enshrined in an international peace deal that in 1998 helped to extinguish decades of sectarian and political violence in Northern Ireland; a period known as the Troubles. Over 3,000 people died during the Troubles, which saw unionist paramilitaries from largely Protestant areas, who identify as British, and republican militias from largely Catholic areas, who sought a re-unified Ireland, trade terror. Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019, two years after Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50, the mechanism t

British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Strasbourg, France. Photo: Reuters

UK shoppers stockpile food, spend less in pubs and restaurants as Brexit nears

British consumers reined in their spending last month as anxiety over Brexit reached fever pitch, according to a survey published Tuesday. Photo: Bloomberg

Eyeing post-Brexit trade deal, US brushes aside food safety concerns as ‘smear campaign’

British Prime Minister Theresa May. Photo: Bloomberg

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Theresa May appears to have lost control of her party, as she decides to allow Conservative MPs to vote however they like on whether to leave EU with no deal


Theresa May appears to have lost control of her party, as she decides to allow Conservative MPs to vote however they like on whether to leave the EU with no deal.


Theresa May

European Union

Britain

‘Total failure’: Brexit defeat leaves British PM Theresa May’s authority in tatters, as Eurosceptics and pro-EU forces unite in anger

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Theresa May appears to have lost control of her party, as she decides to allow Conservative MPs to vote however they like on whether to leave EU with no deal

Theresa May appears to have lost control of her party, as she decides to allow Conservative MPs to vote however they like on whether to leave EU with no deal