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13th Dec 2017

Last week’s Brexit deal is facing yet another setback

Carl Kinsella

Fermanagh

The Brexit deal agreed last week in order to avoid a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is facing yet another setback.

Having already been delayed by the protests of the DUP, and then talked down in the media by prominent Tories such as Brexit Secretary David Davis and Iain Duncan Smith, the deal now faces further challenges.

After a vote in the House of Commons, the Tory government’s motion to pass the deal without having a vote on it in the House of Commons.

Instead, Prime Minister Theresa May was torpedoed by her own MPs, who voted against the government in a 309 to 305 vote. The House of Commons will now need to vote on the deal, a deal which many MPs have publicly undercut, before its provisions are actually implemented by the UK government.

Leader of the Labour Party described the defeat as “a humiliating loss of authority” for the Prime Minister.

As it stands, it’s yet another roadblock facing the implementation of a deal that would effectively see the UK remain in the single market and customs union, and remove the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland. The implementation of the deal will now depend on a vote in Parliament.

Topics:

Brexit