UK lawmakers ratchet up campaign to avert no-deal Brexit

Bloomberg

Lawmakers called on Theresa May to rule out a no-deal Brexit, stepping up a campaign against an outcome they say threatens the livelihoods of voters.
“Manufacturing plants employ thousands of our constituents and their jobs will be put at immediate risk if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union with no deal,” some 209 lawmakers from both May’s Conservatives and opposition parties wrote in a letter to her. It “would cause unnecessary economic damage.”
With less than three months to go until Britain’s scheduled departure from the European Union, there’s still no clarity on how it will pan out. The deal May brokered over 18 months of painstaking talks with the bloc looks set to fall in a parliamentary vote later this month. That would put the country on track to tumble out of the bloc without a deal, putting the economy at risk as new tariffs and bureaucratic barriers strangle trade with the EU.
May stepped up her battle to persuade opponents in Parliament to back her Brexit deal, warning the UK will be in “uncharted territory” if they reject her plan.
The prime minister confirmed the vote will go ahead around January 15 and outlined a three-pronged campaign to win support for the agreement. She’s proposing to give Parliament a bigger say over the future trade terms with the bloc, promising to say how the deal will work in Northern Ireland, and will seek fresh assurances from the EU.
“If the deal is not voted on at this vote that’s coming up, then actually we’re going to be in uncharted territory,” May said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“I don’t think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction that we’ll see in Parliament.”
If she fails to secure the support of the House of Commons, May left open the dramatic option of a second referendum, while insisting she doesn’t want one. She suggested Brexit without a deal would be in the cards — something that analysis by the Treasury and the Bank of England suggests could be economically devastating.
Aware of the risks, lawmakers are mounting a rearguard action to thwart the chance of a no-deal Brexit. A cross-party group of rank-and-file Conservative and Labour members said on Sunday that they’re seeking to amend the government’s Finance Bill to ensure its “no deal” provisions can only be implemented if Parliament
allows it. Conservatives including former ministers Nicky Morgan, Oliver Letwin and Nick Boles put their name to the amendment.
Their goal is to ensure that a no-deal Brexit could only be
delivered with the explicit consent of Parliament — something that’s unlikely given the opposition among lawmakers to such an outcome.
That’s illustrated by the letter to May, which was dated on
December 17 but only publicised by Caroline Spelman, the Conservative former cabinet minister who coordinated it alongside Jack Dromey of Labour.
Their campaign is also supported by manufacturing giants with plants in Britain including Ford Motor Co, Airbus SE and Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc.