May set to seek long Brexit delay as speaker mars plan

Bloomberg

Theresa May looked set to seek a long extension to the UK’s European Union membership after the House of Commons speaker torpedoed her plan to win Parliamentary approval for her deal to leave the bloc.
Officials privately accused Speaker John Bercow of over-reaching his powers to help pro-EU politicians deliver a softer divorce and said another vote on May’s agreement is now unlikely before Thursday’s European Union summit, when the prime minister will have to ask for a delay.
May was given no warning of Bercow’s announcement on Monday, in which he effectively banned her from bringing her deal back to Parliament for a third time unless it changes significantly. Her office issued a terse statement saying the move “requires proper consideration,” but the anger among government officials was palpable.
Bercow set a new test for the prime minister to meet if she wants to ask Parliament to vote again on the agreement she spent two years negotiating with the EU. The deal must be “fundamentally different,” he said, and “in all likelihood” that means something new must be agreed with the bloc.
The problem for May is that negotiations have finished and time has almost run out before the UK is due to leave the EU on March 29. The pound fell as Bercow spoke, before paring losses.
‘Breaking Point’
A delay will potentially give time to May’s opponents to force a rethink of the divorce, and the government sees the move as another attempt by Bercow to frustrate Brexit by helping parliament seize control of the process, according to two officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The PM’s team were taking legal advice as they considered their response to the ruling, which was based on a 415-year-old Parliamentary convention. “The ties of the constitution are being stretched to the breaking point, and I don’t want to be part of the generation that breaks those ties,” Solicitor General Robert Buckland told BBC TV. “That’s why we have to be extremely careful where we tread.”
May had been working to put her deal back to the House of Commons for approval by Wednesday, with a vote penciled in for Tuesday. Bercow’s ruling cuts May’s chances of getting it approved on this timescale, and perhaps at all.
The premier will head to Brussels for the summit on Thursday and now seems likely to have to ask EU leaders to give her an extension to the deadline, the officials said. It could potentially last many months, or even more than a year. The Sun newspaper cited unidentified government sources saying that May is drafting a letter to Donald Tusk, president of the EU Council, formally requesting a delay of 9 to 12 months.
May’s deal was first rejected on January 15 by a record 230 votes. She then reopened talks with the EU to secure further legal assurances on how the Irish border backstop guarantee would work.