It has been quite a crazy week in the world of politics and this is largely due to a small topic called Brexit. This week has seen three votes in parliament with a potentially decisive week in the future of Britain coming to a close. But what happened, and what does it mean?

Firstly, on what feels like a lifetime ago, there was a vote held in the commons to accept or reject Theresa May’s long-worked Brexit deal. This was a second meaningful vote after her first was defeated heavily but going into the vote, there wasn’t a lot of optimism coming from number 10 to suggest that this vote would go anywhere near the way the PM wanted. And it didn’t. The Noes had it with 391 versus 242, subjecting Theresa May to another crushing defeat in parliament. But this vote was just the tip of the iceberg for a defining week in history.

Next up just 24 hours later, another major twist in the Brexit tale came as an amendment was tabled and selected by the Speaker, to call on Parliament to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances. To the surprise of many around Westminster this amendment was actually passed, winning with a majority of just 4 votes. Whilst not legally binding, it was still a large step in avoiding a potentially devastating situation for the UK and it’s economy – as we have already written about regarding Construction and Software companies. Following this, parliament then ruled out leaving the EU without a deal at the end of the month.

So was that the end? Afraid not. Then came the most recent vote with a number of different amendments also put forward, including one by The Independent Group of MPs made up of cross party members who resigned to go against the two main parties. The first amendment which caused the majority of the labour party and People’s Vote supporters to abstain or even reject; was the revision to consider a people’s vote as part of the reason behind the main vote: asking EU to extend Article 50. Many people in support of this actually voted against it, citing that now wasn’t the right time to move for this. The voting reflected this with a heavy defeat for the amendment.

We are at the mercy of the EU’s 27 member states with this one; with it only taking one of those country’s officials to Veto. It is extremely unlikely that this would happen though as a no-deal Brexit isn’t in anyone’s interest. This motion has opened the door for Theresa May to try and squeeze her deal through parliament for a third time whilst seeking changes from MPs to try and claw back some of the historic loss. If May can do this and get a deal agreed before 25th May, the extension granted will only be for three months to allow the technical implementation. If however a deal isn’t agreed by then, the extension could be agreed for anything from 2 years to 4 years.. the problem is: nobody will know what happens next.

But what does this mean for business? Well unfortunately a lot more uncertainty for businesses because we still don’t know what is going to happen either at the end of March or in the foreseeable future. When it comes to the next week, it could even eclipse the importance of the last 4 days in that the fate of our country; and importantly, our businesses – could be decided. Or we have a 2 year extension and the whole thing starts again.

Time will tell!

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