British government suffers catastrophic Brexit parliamentary defeat

Reza AB Choudhury writes for DOT : 
In a historic heaviest parliamentary defeat of the democratic era, the House of Commons has delivered a devastating verdict on Theresa May’s Brexit Withdrawal deal. It voted against it by 432 to 202. The sheer scale of the defeat by a majority of 230 was greater than any other witnessed in the past century. In fact, a near similar defeat was suffered by the Labour party prime minister Ramsey MacDonald on 8 October 1924 by 166 on the first vote into the Campbell case inquiry. Immediately after the result of the vote, the opposition leader tabled a vote of no confidence (VNC) in the government.
Which is not unusual. As protesters noisily massed outside Westminster palace, Theresa May rose to accept the vote and welcomed Labour’s motion of no confidence. Of course it is unlikely such a move would succeed given both the Brexit-backing European Research Group (ERG) and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that is propping up the Tory party as a minority government have announced their support for the government. Thus making it improbable for Labour to succeed in triggering a general election. In any event, this will not resolve the issue of Brexit, cause the EU to offer any better deal than has been proffered, nor is there any public appetite for a general election. Indeed, the public are not terribly enthused to elect Jeremy Corbyn into 10 Downing Street.
Assuming the PM wins the VNC on Wednesday as is likely she will hold meetings with senior parliamentarians from all parties to gauge their views on what would be required to secure the backing of the House of Commons. At time of writing, the PM has omitted Jeremy Corbyn from this cross-party talks. There is no immediate plan of the PM to head to Brussels before testing legislators intent. She would the make a statement to the House on Monday explaining how she intended to proceed.
Despite her heartfelt plea to MPs prior to the vote on 15 January 2019, as well as awarding or rewarding some MPs with knighthoods, MPs remained defiant to the last. On learning of the vote, EU Commission president Jean-Jean-Claude Juncker while regretting the result stated that the process of ratification of the withdrawal agreement continues. The EU’s chief negotiator has said that the risk of a no deal has never been so high with the EU continuing to prepare for a no deal scenario. There seems a growing chorus of voices calling for a second referendum. At the rate things are progressing, this may not be entirely ruled out. Meanwhile, the pound climbed higher against the dollar and euro following the vote as experts say this is because a “softer” Brexit deal is now likely to be on the cards. As at 2pm on 16 January, Sterling rose to 1.285 against the dollar – up from 1.270 before the vote. And the pound stood at 1.128 against the euro compared to 1.116 just before the vote. Reza AB Choudhury is a barrister and mediator.