May reveals date for parliamentary Brexit vote

British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that Parliament will have a chance to vote on her proposals for Britain's terms for exit from the European Union in the week commencing Jan 14th.

The date was announced shortly after opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he would table a vote of no confidence in May's government if a date for the vote was not revealed by the close of business on Monday.

A vote, which May was widely expected to lose, had been scheduled to take place last Tuesday, only to be postponed at short notice, with no alternative date set, as May went for more talks with EU leaders over some of the finer points of the Brexit terms that they had already approved in November.

These talks are widely viewed as not having gone well, and addressing Parliament, May admitted "some of the resulting exchanges were robust, but I make no apology for standing up for the interests of this House," while also adding "discussions with my EU partners show that further clarification is now possible."

The delay to last week's vote provoked fury and caused opponents within May's own party to call a vote of no confidence in her, which she survived by 200 votes to 117.

Under Conservative Party rules, having challenged her – and failed – May's internal opponents cannot call another vote on her leadership for 12 months, but so many of her own side voting against her did nothing to consolidate the prime minister's position. It only made her internal critics more angry with her, and increased opposition calls for a vote of no confidence in the government.

Before last week's vote postponement had even been announced, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon had already made a public offer to Labour Party leader Corbyn that her party would support any vote of no confidence he might launch, with his response being that "we need to do the appropriate thing at the appropriate time to have a motion of no confidence in order to get rid of this government".

Britain is scheduled to leave the EU at the end of March 2019, a move which was set in motion by the referendum of June 2016, but heading into the calendar year when it is supposed to happen, there is still nothing agreed, and the date May has announced means there will not even be a vote toward a possible outcome until the end second half of the month, so time is running out to avoid the much-feared 'No Deal' Brexit, which is widely predicted to have extremely damaging effects on the British economy and society.

May's chances of victory in the vote on her Brexit deal are still regarded as being extremely slim, and she has once again said there will be no second public vote on the matter, so there is still a strong chance that Corbyn could end up calling a vote of no confidence in May and her government at some point.

The Conservatives are a minority government, reliant on the support of 10 MPs from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, known as the DUP. That support is not guaranteed, however, particularly as the main stumbling block of Brexit has been the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an issue of central importance for the DUP, so should May find herself facing a vote of no confidence at any future point, the outcome would be extremely close.

Election campaigns usually last for around five or six weeks, so – hypothetically - were one to be called in the run-up to the scheduled Brexit date, the resulting political upheaval caused by an election, and the possibility of a new leader, or even a new party in government, would be enormous.

This would add yet another layer of confusion and complexity to the Brexit saga, and surely lead to Article 50, Britain's period of notice to leave the EU, having to be extended.