Another delay: May promises Brexit vote in parliament by March 12

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: British Prime Minister Theresa May promised on Sunday to bring a vote on her Brexit deal back to parliament by March 12, the latest delay in her attempts to win approval for a plan to ease Britain’s departure from the European Union.

With just 33 days until Britain is due to leave the bloc, May said there would be no so-called meaningful vote on the deal this week because her team had further meetings in Brussels to secure the kind of changes lawmakers say they need to pass it.

The latest delay after her agreement was resoundingly defeated last month by 230 lawmakers - the biggest parliamentary defeat in British history - underlines the difficulty May is having to try to find a way to get the agreement ratified.

At an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt, May will try to win the backing of the bloc’s leaders to secure the changes and ease increasing frustration in Europe over the political impasse in Britain over a deal that was agreed with London in November.

On her way to Egypt where she hopes to get the approval of EU leaders for her approach, May said further meetings in Brussels on securing changes to the deal ruled out a so-called meaningful vote this week.

“We won’t bring a meaningful vote to parliament this week but we will ensure that that happens by the 12th of March,” May told reporters onboard her plane. “It is still within our grasp to leave the European Union with a deal on the 29th of March and that is what we are working to do.”

May and her ministers have stepped up meetings in Brussels to secure changes to the so-called backstop - an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border, and potential focus for violence, between Britain’s Northern Ireland and the EU’s Ireland.

She wants the EU to reopen the divorce deal, or withdrawal agreement, to satisfy the demands of Brexit supporters and other lawmakers who fear the backstop could trap Britain in the bloc’s customs union indefinitely.