U.K. House of Commons Rejects Brexit Deal (January 15, 2019) [1]
On January 15, 2019, the U.K. House of Commons voted by a large margin to reject [3] Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal setting out the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. Members of Parliament voted 432 to 202 against the plan, resulting in the largest defeat for a sitting government in British history. Under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 [4], the House of Commons is required to approve of a negotiated withdrawal agreement between the U.K. and EU before it can be implemented. Currently the U.K. is still planning to leave the EU by the March 29, 2019, deadline that was triggered when the U.K. gave its official notice of withdrawal under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. From here, there are a number of options [5] the government could take, including having no deal in place when the U.K. leaves the EU, attempting to renegotiate the plan, or holding another referendum within the U.K., which would require an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal.