UK Govt to Propose Brexit Delay Until 30 June if Deal With EU Approved

LONDON (Sputnik) - The UK Government will propose on 14 March to postpone Brexit until 30 June if the parliament approves the deal with the European Union by 20 March, Parliament Speaker John Bercow said Wednesday.

The House of Commons earlier approved by 321 votes to 278 the amended no-deal Brexit motion, which calls on the British government to rule out "no deal" option in any scenario. UK lawmakers are expected to vote on a possible Article 50 extension on Thursday.

At the moment, the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the bloc on 29 March. The situation remains, however, unclear following the UK parliament’s refusal to support the "deal" and "no-deal" scenarios, which still reportedly makes both the extension of negotiations and a no-deal Brexit a possibility.

READ MORE: UK Parliament Rejects Brexit Delay, Any No-Deal Brexit in Series of Votes

On Monday, UK Prime Minister May announced that she and European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker had managed to secure legal changes to the original Brexit deal, which was rejected by the UK parliament. May's updated Brexit plan was similarly shot down by lawmakers.

The withdrawal deal was already rejected by the parliament in January, mainly due to the lawmakers' concerns over the Irish border backstop. May, who has been under a storm of criticism ever since she presented the original agreement, promised to secure legally binding and significant changes to the backstop. Jean-Claude Juncker announced on Tuesday that the UK prime minister had secured "legally binding" changes to the deal and, in particular, to the backstop provision.

Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly promised to renegotiate the backstop provision to avoid a hard Irish border, a vow rebuffed by both Brussels and Dublin.

READ MORE: No Exit From EU Bigger Risk Than No Deal, UK Brexit Minister WARNS

Meanwhile, over a half of UK voters want Prime Minister Theresa May to resign due to her failure to secure an agreement for the country's smooth withdrawal from the European Union, the Politico-Hanbury poll revealed on Wednesday. In particular, the poll carried out among 500 UK adults after the parliament's vote on Tuesday showed that 50.2 percent of respondents had said that May should resign immediately.