Friday 22 March and so much has happened in the last week!
The speaker blocked meaningful vote 3 on the May deal, invoking a precedent set in 1604. Mrs May went on live television to the British people and blamed MPs in the House for not making a decision.
Yesterday was the EU Summit in Brussels and Mrs May addressed the 27 EU leaders for 90 minutes, asking for a delay on BREXIT until the 30th of June. Late into the evening, without her in the meeting, they came back and gave the UK:
- A delay on the 29 March BREXIT deadline until 22 May, providing the House of Commons approves the May Deal next week, ie by 29 March
- If they don’t, the delay will run to 12 April, for other options to be considered
These other options the UK has would presumably by then be:
- A no deal exit on 12 April
- A long extension, requiring the UK to take part in the EU elections on 23 May
- Revoking Article 50 and starting again…
A new petition urging the Government to revoke Article 50 currently has 2.2 million signatures.
Perhaps the end of May is looming in more ways than one…
Martin Gibbs is Dafferns Managing Partner. He likes talking about BREXIT and any political views in this post are his own.
