Theresa May's Brexit plan is facing major defeat in a key vote

Theresa May
(Image credit: LUDOVIC MARIN / Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Theresa May faces likely defeat in a key Parliament vote on her Brexit plan on Tuesday, with at least 70 members of her Conservative Party publicly committed to joining opposition lawmakers against her proposed deal with the European Union, Bloomberg reports. May made a last-minute appeal for support on Monday, after postponing a vote before Christmas in hopes she could win over lawmakers.

Many Brexit supporters say May's deal gives too much control to the EU to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland, part of the U.K., and Ireland, an EU member. The fate of May's plan is believed to hinge on the magnitude of her expected defeat. A narrow loss would let her seek more concessions from Brussels; a humiliating loss could force her to delay Britain's scheduled March 29 departure from the EU, Reuters reports.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.