London: British MPs are preparing to vote for their preferred Brexit option, with Prime Minister Theresa May due to meet Tory backbenchers in an effort to win them over to her deal. There have been suggestions that May must name the date she will step down to have any hope of winning MPs’ approval for her deal at the third attempt, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Leading Brexit supporter lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated he would now back May’s deal as “half a loaf is better than no bread”.
He said he did not “begin to pretend this is a good deal or a good choice”, but he would support the Prime Minister’s plan if it had the backing of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The 10 DUP lawmakers are seen as the key to securing the deal, but they have urged Tory MPs to “stand firm” in their opposition unless there were “significant changes”. Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom said the government was still in talks to persuade the DUP to back it, along with other MPs on their own benches.
She said there was a “real possibility” that May’s deal could come back for a vote on Thursday or Friday. “If we could simply get the withdrawal agreement bill under way… once we have done that, once we have left the European Union, we can then look at what our future relationship will look like,” she added.
