With the final deadline fast approaching for the UK to adopt some kind of agreement with the European Union for a relationship following the nation's departure from the bloc, May has reportedly resorted to extreme measures to get the House of Commons to assent — something the government head has failed to make happen so far.
Three of May's cabinet ministers resigned earlier Monday in protest over the prime minister's poor management of Brexit: Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt, Business Minister Richard Harrington, and Health Minister Stephen Brine. The moves followed a defeat for May: MPs passed an amendment to wrest control of the Brexit timetable away from Brussels and put it in the hands of the House of Commons. Thirty of May's own Conservative MPs broke ranks to vote for the measure.
"The major admission came in a private conversation with senior Tory Eurosceptics at her Chequers country retreat on Sunday evening," the Sun wrote, noting that "May also made it clear she would first need to know if the numbers were there for any resignation pact before she agrees to ponder it any further."
The announcement also follows the Monday publication of a one-page ad by the Sun calling for her resignation.
"With regret", The Sun says in a front page editorial that British PM Theresa May must resign. https://t.co/6tAmnW9sQm pic.twitter.com/9sClZM61z3
— Sam Buckingham-Jones (@SamEBJones) March 25, 2019"It is disappointing to see this amendment pass," said a spokesman for the UK's Department for Exiting the European Union, Reuters reported.
While it is now up to parliament to set out next steps in respect of this amendment, the government will continue to call for realism — any options considered must be deliverable in negotiations with the EU," the spokesman said. "Parliament should take account of how long these negotiations would take, and if they'd require a longer extension which would mean holding European parliamentary elections."
