The European Court of Justice has ruled the UK can cancel Brexit without the permission of the other 27 EU members and without altering the terms of Britain’s membership. The decision comes a day before MPs are due to vote on British Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal for leaving the EU.
May is set to postpone Parliament’s vote on her European Union divorce deal Monday to avoid a humiliating defeat. The move would throw Brexit plans into chaos just weeks after Britain and the bloc finally reached an agreement.
There were signs that pointed to a big defeat for the prime minister in Tuesday’s vote, to the point that the result could sink May’s deal, her leadership, or both.
Mrs. May planned to make an unscheduled address to Parliament on Monday afternoon while an updated House of Commons business statement said there would be a statement on “business of the House” after May’s address.
Amid the political chaos, the British pound hit an 18-month low against the U.S. dollar of $1.2660.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, confirmed the planned postponement in a statement saying that the prime minister’s “Brexit deal is so disastrous” that the government “has taken the desperate step of delaying its own vote at the eleventh hour.”
Brexit is the impending withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Britain voted in 2016 to leave the 28-nation bloc, and invoked Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in March 2017, prompting a two-year exit process. However, a group of Scottish legislators asked the ECJ to rule on whether the U.K. could pull out of the withdrawal procedure on its own.
The Luxembourg-based ECJ said that, given the absence of any exit provision in Article 50, the British government can change its mind about leaving so long as it falls in line with their own constitutional arrangements and that such a move “reflects a sovereign decision.”
By: Maytinee Kramer
