United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party was dealt a blow in the snap vote results in the United Kingdom yesterday, causing growing concern in the European over Brexit negotiations, which were to initially begin on June 19.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May saw her Conservative Party lose its parliamentary majority in yesterday’s snap vote, just days before talks with the European Union (EU) on the Brexit vote were to begin, causing growing concern over potentially risky negotiations.
May’s rival, Jeremy Corbyn, once written off by opponents, said May should step down so he can form a minority government. But May has said she will go to Buckingham Palace to ask Queen Elizabeth for permission to form a new government, according to multiple news sources.
The U.K. snap vote results could delay the Brexit negotiations, which were set to begin on June 19, if reformulating the next U.K. government proves complicated.
EU Summit Chairman Donald Tusk, who is overseeing negotiations between the U.K. and EU, referenced the March 2019 deadline for when Britain must be out of the Union by taking to twitter to say, “We don’t know when Brexit talks start. We know when they must end.”
May, who had campaigned against Brexit last year, delivered her terms for withdrawal on March 29 that included a clean break from the EU single market. She then called a snap election hoping for a big majority to strengthen her negotiating hand, reported Reuters.
That was also the broadly desired outcome in Brussels, where leaders believed that a stronger Prime Minister, and Conservative Party, would be better able to negotiate deals with the EU and resist pressure from “hardline pro-Brexit factions in her party to walk out without a deal,” said Reuters.
However, the results leave a weakened U.K. with little room for maneuverability. Guenther Oettinger, the German member of the EU executive arm, warned that a weak British leadership was a problem for the Union. “We need a government that can act,” he told the Deutschlandfunk radio station, according to Reuters. “With a weak negotiating partner, there’s the danger that the negotiations will turn out badly.”
Furthermore, Reuters noted how the results pose an increased risk for delayed Brexit negotiations, which could result in Britain ceasing to be an EU member without legal safeguards to avoid a chaotic limbo for people and businesses, making it improbable that Britain could secure the rapid free trade agreement it wants with the EU after it leaves.
U.K. snap vote results leave Brexit negotiations uncertain
