The withdrawal agreement reached with the EU will see a “meaningful vote” in Britain’s parliament in the week commencing Jan. 14, British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Monday.
Briefing MPs on last week’s European council summit, May said another Brexit referendum would "break faith with the British people."
A second referendum would cause "irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics," she warned lawmakers.
May said a referendum do-over would “further divide our country at the very moment we should be working to unite it.”
For Tory MPs, May asked them not to give the opposition Labour Party leader a chance to trigger early general elections.
May’s warning came following earlier media reports that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would submit a motion of no confidence in Premier May, an action that would take the country to early elections if the prime minister lost the vote in parliament.
Corbyn blasted May for not giving way to a vote on the deal, but made no mention of the reported motion of no confidence.
The controversial deal was scheduled to be voted on last week before the government postponed it at the last minute.
Corbyn said the leading Conservative Party is “fundamentally split" and the “government is shambolic and chaotic,” adding that May achieved nothing in last week’s negotiations with EU leaders to seek better terms.
“The prime minister has cynically run down the clock… a responsible prime minister would have put this deal in the House [of Commons] this week.”
He said: “The deal is unchanged and is not going to change.
“The House must get on with the vote and move on to consider the realistic alternatives.”
“It is disgraceful a full month has been wasted,” Corbyn added.
“There can be no further attempts to dodge accountability to parliament,” he said.
British voters decided to leave the EU after the country’s more than 40-year-long membership in a 2016 referendum.
The U.K. is set to leave the EU on 29 Match 2019.
