Author: Benjamin Mueller / Source: New York Times
Two and a half years after Britain’s referendum on whether to leave the European Union, the country remains divided. We met with voters on both sides of the debate — those who voted to leave and now feel betrayed, and those campaigning for a second referendum.
LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May survived a revolt on Wednesday by the hard-line, pro-Brexit parliamentary faction of her Conservative Party.
That will give her some time to try to get her plan for leaving the European Union — the same one that spurred the revolt — through Parliament.
But the final tally in the no-confidence vote on Wednesday also showed just how difficult that will be.
To pass legislation, Mrs. May needs the votes of all her party’s lawmakers and more — her government relies on the backing of a small Northern Ireland party. In this ballot, which was restricted to Conservative members of Parliament, 200 lawmakers supported her and 117 voted to eject her from office.
Can she somehow defy the odds and the almost universal predictions of doom and see her plan through to adoption?
Here’s what you need to know.
Mrs. May won. But it might not be much of a victory.
More than a third of her own party wanted someone else leading the Brexit process. That was especially sobering because about half of Conservative lawmakers also hold paid government posts of some sort; Mrs. May’s critics were quick to argue that she would have lost handily without the support of this “payroll vote.
”There’s something else they were quick to recall, too: In 1990, a far more formidable Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was forced to step down within days of defeating a leadership challenge by 204 votes to 152.
The party’s rules were very different then, however: Mrs. Thatcher was headed for a second, more bruising round of balloting, while Mrs. May is now immune from further Conservative Party votes for a year.
And if we have learned one thing about Mrs. May these last years, it’s that she will not quit. With a little more than three months before Britain’s membership of the European Union is scheduled to expire, she does not think the country can afford a change in leadership.
Still, her power has rarely looked so tenuous.
Her victory came at a cost.
The prime minister bargained away her long-term political future to ensure she would survive the no-confidence vote, promising Conservative lawmakers that she would step down before a general election set for 2022.
It was an emotional retreat for Mrs. May, and a victory for Conservative colleagues…
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