{"id":29212,"date":"2019-01-15T07:23:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T07:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29212"},"modified":"2019-01-15T07:23:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T07:23:23","slug":"brexit-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-meaningful-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29212","title":{"rendered":"Brexit: Everything you need to know about the ‘meaningful vote’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

What is the ‘meaningful vote’ and why is it important?<\/h2>\n

On Tuesday evening, between 19:00 and 21:00 GMT, UK MPs will vote on a deal reached by Prime Minister Theresa May<\/a> with the European Union<\/a> on the terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc – “Brexit”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The widely anticipated vote has been dubbed “meaningful” because it reflects a concession made by May under intense pressure to allow parliament to ratify her plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the first time MPs have the chance to vote on the agreement after two years of difficult negotiations as the clock ticks towards the Brexit deadline of March 29.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote has been scheduled for December, but May postponed, expecting the deal to be rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome, the vote will determine how – or whether – the UK proceeds with Brexit, and the parliament’s role in that process.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, at a deeper level, it reflects an effort by the British parliament to assert its role in one of the most important political issues facing the country in generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alice Lilly, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government in London, said: “You can view everything we have seen in the last few days and the meaningful vote itself in terms of the tension that exists between parliament and government.<\/span><\/p>\n

“That tension between legislature and executive is always going to exist – but Brexit<\/a> has really brought that to the fore over the last couple of years.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The good news, said Oliver Patel, research associate at the University College London European Institute, is despite many criticisms of the political process in the United Kingdom<\/a>, the meaningful vote indicates its constitution is working.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There have been so many things that have happened during the Brexit process which the executive hasn’t wanted that parliament has managed to get – which is how it should be.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, cautions Paul Taggart, professor of politics at Sussex University’s European Institute, this still does not resolve the divisions among MPs about what to do next.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If parliament is reasserting itself and asserting sovereignty over this process, that is pretty much constitutional in the British context – but the more substantive point is what does parliament then do with that sovereignty if it cannot come up with a solution to Brexit?”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What are MPs voting for exactly?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Pariamentarians will vote on both a “withdrawal agreement”\u00a0and a “political declaration”\u00a0on the framework for the UK’s future relationship with the EU agreed on November 25.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there is widespread opposition to aspects of May’s deal among MPs of all parties, reflecting deep divisions over Brexit in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many members of May’s own Conservative Party are incensed by the “Northern Ireland backstop” – an arrangement to ensure an open border with the Republic of Ireland that they say could lock the province or the entire UK into the EU permanently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the meaningful vote, MPs are also likely to vote on a string of as yet unknown amendments put forward by both supporters and opponents of Brexit that could influence the dynamic of voting and eventual outcome.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This has meant that only the most foolhardy are daring to predict what will happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

How will the vote shape Brexit?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The meaningful vote will ultimately determine the outcome of Britain’s painful Brexit saga.<\/span><\/p>\n

It will lead either to an amended withdrawal deal, a “no deal” Brexit that doomsayers claim will be economically disastrous, or a second referendum on these options or even whether to remain in the EU after all. <\/span><\/p>\n

If May were to lose, she will probably seek concessions from the EU, then put her deal to parliament a second time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Analysts say British Prime Minister Theresa May’s political career is on the line with most MPs expected to reject her Brexit deal [File: Alastair Grant\/AP]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Parliament could also hold “indicative votes” gauging support for alternatives to her plan such as arrangements modelled on Norway’s relationship with the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n

The opposition Labour Party has been pressing for another general election and threatens to engineer a confidence vote in May’s government if she is defeated – but it is unlikely to win.<\/span><\/p>\n

While there is also support for a second referendum on Britain’s exit from the EU, it is not clear that a majority of MPs back this option.<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s expected to happen?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Most observers expect May to lose the meaningful vote, and her ministers admit this is likely.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the prime minister has made strenuous efforts to win support for her “compromise” and has moved between appealing to MPs hostile to Brexit and those who stridently support it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taggart said: “May has consistently tried to frame these big decisions in a way that suits her. She framed it last time as vote for her deal or there will be a ‘no deal’ Brexit. That didn’t seem to work.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“So this time she has been saying: it is my deal or no Brexit, trying in particular to mobilise Brexit supporting MPs.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Patel said if May is defeated she could return to parliament with a modified deal that will be sufficient to secure the support of Conservative Brexiteers.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There are a lot of Conservative MPs who don’t want to vote against this deal and it might actually take less to persuade them to vote for a variant of it in the future than we can imagine – especially if it were to become clear in an indicative vote that a majority of MPs support a second referendum.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This means a key theme of the meaningful vote has become less about whether May will lose – and more by what margin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is May in a strong or weak position this time around?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The meaningful vote was initially scheduled to be held on December 11 but was postponed by May when it became clear she faced certain defeat.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last two years, however, she has been in a uniquely strong position to shape the terms of Brexit, for two main reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, the British political process gives unique power to prime ministers to control the way parliament does business and set the terms of debate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, Brexit has been such a divisive issue in the UK that the alternatives to it have been difficult to explain and understand, meaning no consensus exists about what to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Broadly speaking, there is not a majority for any alternative – but there are majorities blocking nearly every alternative, so May has been able to frame Brexit because of the inability of other people to come forward with solutions,”\u00a0Taggart said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he added, at the end of the day this has left her weakened because while she has set the agenda she has consistently “kicked the Brexit can down the road”.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“May is the architect of the corner that she is currently sitting in.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the ‘meaningful vote’ and why is it important? On Tuesday evening, between 19:00 and 21:00 GMT, UK MPs will vote on a deal reached by Prime Minister Theresa May with the European Union on the terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc – “Brexit”.\u00a0 The widely anticipated vote has been dubbed “meaningful” because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}