Brexit-fix plan hits the rocks

Britain’s last-minute scramble to shape its exit from the EU, its biggest policy upheaval in half a century, hit the rocks on Thursday as Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dug in their heels for competing visions.

After May’s two-year attempt to forge an amicable divorce with an independent trade policy was crushed by parliament in the biggest defeat for a British leader in modern history, May asked party leaders to forget self-interest to find a solution.

Yet there was little sign on Thursday that either of the two major parties – which together hold 88% of the 650 seats in parliament – was prepared to compromise on key demands.

Corbyn said May had sent Britain hurtling towards the cliff edge of a sudden exit on March 29 with no transition period, and urged her to ditch her “red lines”.

But he repeated his own condition for talks – a pledge to block a no-deal Brexit.

“The government confirmed that she would not take ‘nodeal’ off the table,” Corbyn said in a speech in Hastings.

“So I say to the prime minister again: I am quite happy to talk, but the starting point for any talks about Brexit must be that the threat of a disastrous no-deal outcome is ruled out.”

But the further May moves towards softening Brexit, the more she alienates dedicated Brexit supporters in her own Conservative Party who think the threat of a no-deal exit is a crucial bargaining chip and should anyway not be feared.

If May fails to forge consensus, the world’s fifth-largest economy will drop out of the European Union on March 29 without a deal or will be forced to delay Brexit, possibly holding a national election or even another referendum.

Corbyn said that, under certain conditions, he would look at options including another referendum – a remark that increased expectations in financial markets that the political chaos would ultimately delay or stop Brexit.

May has refused to countenance another election, having lost her parliamentary majority in a snap poll in 2017 that left her reliant on the support of a small Northern Irish proBrexit party.

She has repeatedly said another referendum would corrode faith in democracy among the 17.4-million people who voted to leave the EU in 2016.

“I believe it is my duty to deliver on the British people’s instruction to leave the European Union. And I intend to do so,” she said in a televised address.

Her spokesperson said Britain had not raised the idea of delaying Britain’s exit.

Other members of the EU have offered to talk.

“We will do everything we can so that Britain exits with, and not without, an agreement,” German foreign minister Heiko Maas told Berlin’s lower house of parliament.

But they can do little until London decides what it wants.

May will on Monday put forward a motion in parliament on her proposed next steps. Over the following week, legislators will be able to propose alternatives.

On January 29, they will debate and vote on them.

If a way forward emerges, May could then go back to the EU and seek changes to her deal. Parliament would still need to vote on any new agreement.