Can Parliament stop a no-deal Brexit?
This week will see Parliament finally vote on her hugely divisive Brexit deal – here's the latest on the ongoing Brexit crisis.
Can Parliament stop a no-deal Brexit?
The EU Withdrawal Act set in law that Britain will exit the EU on March 29 – two years on from the triggering of Article 50 by Theresa May.
Once Britain exits the EU in March, a transition period of 21 months will begin and take us up to the end of 2020.
But once that period ends and if no further agreement on a future relationship has been reached then by default Britain's existing treaties with the EU will cease to apply.
In recent days Parliament has moved to reduce the chances of a no-deal through a number of amendments in the House of Commons.
One limited the Treasury's ability to make preparations for a no-deal while another means the Government will have to deliver its new plan for Brexit should Theresa May lose Tuesday's key vote.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt recently admitted it was looking "less likely" Parliament would allow the UK to leave without a deal in place.
Speaking to The Today programme he said: "I think it's now looking much less likely that Parliament would allow a no-deal outcome anyway.
"We have seen from this week that Parliament has the ability to assert itself and to shape outcomes."
And it later emerged that there are moves in Parliament for senior backbenchers to take control of Brexit and wrest power away from Downing Street.
A Cabinet minister told the Daily Mail the move was a "copper-bottomed, bullet-proof plan to sink Brexit which relies on the fact that Government has no majority and that the Speaker will bend the rules".
It would allow MPs to seize control of what laws can be put before the Commons if Mrs May is defeated tomorrow.
Nick Boles, one of the MPs involved, told the BBC: "This bill would do the following: it would give the Government three more weeks to get a compromise deal, a plan B, through Parliament so that we are leaving the EU on time on March 29 with a deal.
"If that failed, it would then ask the Liaison Committee, which is the committee of all the chairs of select committees and other parliamentary committees, it would give the Liaison Committee the responsibility to try and come up with its own compromise deal, which would have to go back to the House for a vote.
"If the House passed that compromise deal, then the Government would be legally required to implement whatever it was that they had."
When is the Parliamentary vote on Brexit?
Theresa May’s crunch Commons vote on her Brexit deal has been pencilled in for tomorrow, January 15.
The vote was initially scheduled for 7pm on December 11 but was cancelled by May at the eleventh hour.
The government was forced to start the process again by holding a full five days of debate running up to the vote, which began on January 9.
Many have cast this as the day of reckoning, when Britain faces the ultimatum of a new deal, or crashing out with a no-deal Brexit.
The PM dramatically abandoned the original ‘Meaningful Vote’ – after MPs had already debated it for three days in December 2018.
She took the unprecedented step after admitting she was on course to lose heavily.
When was Article 50 triggered?
As of 12.30pm on March 29, 2017, the UK was set on a course to leave the EU by March 29, 2019.
The PM sent an official letter invoking Article 50 which was delivered to Donald Tusk.
It came after Theresa May quashed a Tory revolt after passing a law to authorise Brexit following a marathon five-week battle with Parliament.
The Lords had earlier defied the PM by adding two changes to the bill which would guarantee the rights of EU citizens and ensure Parliament has a vote on the final deal – but the Commons threw out these conditions.
But it backed down after the Commons vote, agreeing not to tamper with the landmark power – ordered by the Supreme Court – for a second time, ending the constitutional stand-off.
On October 1 Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said a pause on leaving the bloc was not on the cards and called on EU chiefs to "get real".
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