No-Deal Brexit Likely, 2nd Referendum Off Cards After Deal Defeat - Labour Peer Glasman

UK Prime Minister Theresa May's decisive defeat in the Parliament over her EU-approved Brexit deal will likely result in the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without a deal, while a second referendum on UK withdrawal from the bloc is unlikely, Baron Maurice Glasman, a Labour life peer from the upper chamber of the UK Parliament, told Sputnik

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2019) UK Prime Minister Theresa May's decisive defeat in the Parliament over her EU-approved Brexit deal will likely result in the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without a deal, while a second referendum on UK withdrawal from the bloc is unlikely, Baron Maurice Glasman, a Labour life peer from the upper chamber of the UK Parliament, told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, the UK lower house of parliament, the House of Commons, voted 432-202 against May's Brexit deal. The prime minister has until Monday to present her Plan B if she survives a no-confidence vote set to be around 19:00 GMT later on Wednesday.

"The problem [with a second referendum] is that they've left it really late ... A referendum takes about six months to organise and the clock is ticking. So they'd need to get a very lengthy extension to Article 50 [of the Treaty on European Union, guaranteeing EU member states right to withdraw in compliance with their own constitutional requirements] and once again I'm not convinced the Labour leadership would accept that. So as it stands the logic looks like no-deal, which is the real deal," Glasman said.

He went on to elaborate on how the Labour Party stood to gain by capitalizing on the Conservatives' current difficulties, something that could see the opposition knock aside other parties by seizing on working class support for exiting the European Union.

"The real thing to keep your eye on is working class support for Brexit, which is absolutely rock solid. That is in Labour's grasp. If Labour can firmly commit to Brexit then groups like UKIP [eurosceptic UK Independence Party] are finished and will remain finished .

.. If Labour looks like a Remain party and is going to extend Article 50 or go for a 'people's vote' then the Labour vote will really fall, and I know that [Labour Party leader] Jeremy Corbyn and [Labour parliamentarian] John McDonnell are very concerned by that," he argued, stressing that Corbyn and McDonnel both were "pro-working class people."

Glasman also voiced doubt that Corbyn and McDonnell did not seek a no-deal Brexit.

"I'm not at all persuaded that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would not like a no-deal. I think that that's consistent with their whole politics to leave the EU. So I think that the Labour leadership will essentially hunker down, attack the government, and then try and blame the Tories when there's a no-deal Brexit. I think that's how it's going to go," Glasman concluded.

May's deal defeat leaves the United Kingdom amid a political crisis following its 2016 referendum decision to exit the European Union.

Although the electorate voted by a clear 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum, the ruling Conservative Party remains divided over how to proceed, with the country still lacking an accepted withdrawal deal in the face of a rapidly approaching leave date of March 29.

EU leaders have also repeatedly stressed that they were unwilling to renegotiate the UK exit from the union, despite at times attempting to offer further assurances on the now notorious "backstop" protocol, itself a means to ensure the retention of a smooth border in Northern Ireland by potentially retaining the United Kingdom within a common customs framework with the European Union.