'Government Attempting to Turn Leave Into Remain' - Commentator on Brexit

© AP Photo / Matt DunhamA pro-leave supporter, right, hods a placard in front of a group of pro-remain supporters during demonstrations in London, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. Britain's Parliament is set to vote on competing Brexit plans, with Prime Minister Theresa May desperately seeking a mandate from lawmakers to help secure concessions from the European Union.
A pro-leave supporter, right, hods a placard in front of a group of pro-remain supporters during demonstrations in London, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. Britain's Parliament is set to vote on competing Brexit plans, with Prime Minister Theresa May desperately seeking a mandate from lawmakers to help secure concessions from the European Union. - Sputnik International
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British MPs have ruled out the UK departing the EU without a deal in any circumstances, leading to speculation that either Prime Minister Theresa May's weak proposals will be accepted in the House of Commons, or Brexit will be delayed and even cancelled altogether. Is a betrayal of the British people on the cards?

Sputnik spoke with political commentator Pete Durnell about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit and extension of Article Fifty.

Sputnik: Now that a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances has been ruled out by parliament is there any chance that a true Brexit can be achieved?

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Pete Durnell: I think it's important to remember that it's not just up to our parliament; all of the other twenty seven EU nations have to any extension of Article Fifty, so it only takes one rebel nation to scupper that.

There is still a chance, I think the bookmakers put it at around ten to one, so  a bit of a slim chance but it could still happen.

Effectively they keep saying that the Prime Minister's deal is the best deal possible, so if you believe that's true then what is the point of extending Article Fifty? There's clearly none. We could've got a much better deal if we hadn't tied our hands behind our backs and made it very clear that we won't do the one thing that the EU is worried about, which is walking away with our thirty nine billion pounds tucked firmly in our back pockets; but we chose to negotiate from a position of weakness, and the EU's taken full advantage.

READ MORE: Finnish Think Tank Warns of Brexit's ‘Unexpected Effects' on Int'l Value Chains

Sputnik: Has the British government deliberately betrayed the British people, and would we have been in this situation under different leadership?

Pete Durnell: I think that there's a decent chance that our MPs will capitulate and vote May's deal through at the final opportunity next week, and an indefinite period of simply being a rule taking so-called vessel state will commence shortly afterwards.

Our parliament; as we kind of all know is roughly seventy-five percent remainer, and we have a remainer Prime Minister.

A pro-Brexit leave the European Union supporter takes part in a protest outside the House of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 13, 2019. - Sputnik International
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Having given the British public the decision to make and promising to implement it, it has pretty much for the last three years been attempting to turn leave into remain, and it's now about to give itself even more time to complete that job.

READ MORE: Lesser of Two Evils: Brexit Delay Uncertainty Beats No-Deal, Says Analyst

Is betrayal too strong a word? I would say it isn't really. With regards to Theresa May; by the time they tried to get rid of her, I think it was already too late to avoid the embarrassing antics that we are now seeing in parliament, but if we had a Prime Minister who believed in Brexit from day one, then I think that things would have been very different.

Instead of a remainer faded, close alignment deal; we would have negotiated  a simple free trade agreement, which is definitely what I think seventeen point four million people would have expected to have been put into place when they voted to leave.

Had we done that; we would be free from the EU's shackles on the twenty ninth of this month, which we are not going to be now.

READ MORE: Britain Is Now in the Clutches of an Even Bigger Political Crisis — Professor

The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

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