Speculation is mounting that British prime minister Theresa May is planning to cancel a key vote in the UK parliament on her Brexit withdrawal agreement.
The vote was supposed to take place tomorrow, December 11, which would have seen the agreement either accepted or rejected outright by politicians.
It is thought that, if the vote went ahead, May would not have had enough support for the agreement to be accepted, and she has reportedly cancelled the vote in anticipation of a certain defeat, according to American news company Bloomberg.
May is expected to make a statement on the matter at around 3:30pm later today, December 10.
May was facing challenges from within her own party, as well as her coalition partners, the Democratic Unionist Party, who disagreed with the Northern Irish backstop, and the customs and trading arrangements set out in the withdrawal agreement.
May’s apparent decision to call off the vote comes just hours after the European Court of Justice decided that Britain can revoke Article 50 – and thereby remain, at least for now, a full EU member.
According to the judgement by the court, “The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU”.
The decision by the court leaves the door open to a possible second referendum on Brexit down the line.
