LONDON -- British lawmakers on Friday rejected for a third time the government's plan to withdraw from the European Union, leaving the U.K. facing the prospect of a chaotic departure from the bloc in just two weeks.
The House of Commons voted 344-286 against the withdrawal agreement struck between Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU, rebuffing her plea to "put aside self and party" and deliver the exit for which Britons voted.
Amid business warnings that a no-deal exit could mean crippling tariffs, border gridlock and shortages of goods, May said the vote had "grave" implications.
"The legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on 12 April -- in just 14 days' time," she said. "This is not enough time to agree, legislate for and ratify a deal, and yet the House has been clear it will not permit leaving without a deal. And so we will have to agree on an alternative way forward."
Had the deal been passed, Britain would have left the EU on May 22.
The bloc said the rejection of the divorce terms made a no-deal exit "a likely scenario" and called an emergency summit of EU leaders for April 10 to decide what to do next.
An EU Commission official said the 27 remaining EU nations were "fully prepared for a no-deal scenario at midnight 12th of April."
Almost three years after Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the EU, and two years after it set its departure date for March 29, 2019, British politicians remain deadlocked over the withdrawal. They are split among those who want a clean break, those who want to retain close ties with the bloc, and those who want to overturn the decision to leave.
Last week, to prevent Britain from crashing out, the EU granted an extension to May 22 if the divorce deal was approved by Friday -- or to April 12 if it was rejected.
Friday's 58-vote margin of defeat for the deal was narrower than previous votes in January and March, but it still left the government's blueprint for exiting the bloc in tatters.
May's deal was voted down even after the prime minister sacrificed her job in exchange for Britain's withdrawal, promising to quit if lawmakers approved the agreement. With the deal's rejection, she will face pressure to step aside and let a new Conservative Party leader take over negotiations with the EU.
The government had also warned anti-EU politicians that rejecting May's deal could see Britain's departure from the EU delayed indefinitely.
May's arguments moved some previously resistant lawmakers to support the deal. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson -- a likely contender to replace May as Conservative leader -- tweeted that rejecting it risked "being forced to accept an even worse version of Brexit or losing Brexit altogether."
But May's key allies, the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, refused to back the agreement because it treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the U.K.
Parliament voted on the legally binding, 585-page withdrawal agreement that May struck with the EU late last year, setting out the terms of Britain's departure -- but not on a shorter declaration on future ties that was also part of the accord between the two sides.
Removing the political declaration altered the deal enough to overcome a parliamentary ban against asking lawmakers the same question over and over again.
May also hoped severing the link between the two parts of the deal would blunt opposition. That gamble failed to pay off, as opposition lawmakers said it amounted to voting for a "blind Brexit" with no idea what would happen next.
Opposition lawmakers declared May's deal as good as dead. Labor Party legislator Ian Murray likened it to the dead parrot in a Monty Python comedy sketch.
"Her deal is no more," he said. "It has ceased to exist. It is bereft of life. It rests in peace. It's a deal that has been nailed to its perch. It's an ex-parrot, it is an ex-deal."
The defeat sparked immediate concern across Europe. "Very discouraging. UK must now show a way to avoid a #NoDeal," wrote Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Twitter. "Almost out of options and time. We will intensify our no deal preparations."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who fears that EU member Ireland has not done enough to get ready to defend its border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., against smuggling, plans to visit Dublin next week to press leaders there.
EU ambassadors had gathered Thursday to sort out their conditions for talks with Britain if it crashes out without a divorce deal.
Britain would have to commit to paying its EU bills of at least $51 billion. It would need to find a way to keep the Irish border open -- potentially by keeping Northern Ireland within the EU customs zone, exactly what anti-EU lawmakers oppose. And it would have to extend rights to EU citizens living in Britain, according to a diplomat familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential discussions.
Lawmakers who favor a "soft Brexit" plan to hold votes Monday in an attempt to find a deal with majority support that can break the deadlock.
Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Parliament had a "responsibility to find a majority for a better deal for all the people of this country."
Business groups, which have been sounding the alarm for months about the damage a no-deal exit could do, urged lawmakers to avert disaster.
"All eyes are now on Monday to discover what Parliament is for," said Josh Hardie, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry. "The U.K.'s reputation, people's jobs and livelihoods are at stake. No-deal is two weeks away."
Eric Schweitzer, head of the influential Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said it was time to prepare for the worst.
"Britain and Europe are stumbling toward an unregulated withdrawal from the EU," he said.
If lawmakers back a new proposal, Britain would need to seek a new delay to its exit from the bloc to implement it.
The EU has indicated it could grant an extension of up to a year if the U.K. plans to change course and tack toward a softer departure. That would, however, require Britain to participate in elections for the European Parliament in late May -- something both the bloc and the British government have sought to avoid.
'LEAVE MEANS LEAVE'
The political morass left some Britons frustrated and angry Friday.
Some exit supporters had wanted Big Ben, currently silenced for renovation, to emerge from the scaffolding to chime Britain out of the EU on Friday, the day Britain was originally meant to leave the bloc. A commemorative coin was planned by the Royal Mint.
"I dearly wish we could be toasting Britain's freedom with Champagne at 11 p.m. on Friday, just as we'd planned," said Allison Pearson, a columnist for the anti-EU Daily Telegraph.
"Under the circumstances, half a glass of Tizer and Nurofen is more like it," she said, referring to a British soft drink and a painkiller.
On Twitter, supporters of staying in the EU had a "non-Brexit" celebration. "Off to Glasgow to celebrate non-#Brexit day with fellow remainers," read one.
"Happy Brexit day everyone!" read another. "I'm going to celebrate by eating my non bendy bananas, drinking some English sparkling wine & stroking my blue passport!"
Meanwhile, thousands of exit supporters converged on Parliament Square as lawmakers voted inside, waving Union Jack flags, singing "Bye-Bye EU" and lamenting the government's failure to take Britain out of the bloc on schedule.
"The people are supposed to be the masters and them inside [Parliament] are meant to do what we tell them," said Charlotte Clifford from Eastbourne in southern England. "It's democracy."
The main "Leave Means Leave" protest outside Parliament was attended by former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who called Friday a "day of betrayal."
In a separate rally up the street, far-right agitator Tommy Robinson roused supporters with a speech attacking politicians and the media.
Retired charity worker Mandy Childs, one of a band of exit supporters walking across England to join the "Leave Means Leave" protest, said she felt "heartbroken."
"We were told over 100 times by a British prime minister that we would be leaving on the 29th of March, 2019," she said.
"To do that, promise the British people that and then say 'Actually, no, we need to just put it back' -- absolute betrayal. And how dare she?"
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Lawless, Danica Kirka, Raf Casert, Monika Scislowska and Jeff Schaeffer of The Associated Press; by Stephen Castle and Benjamin Mueller of The New York Times; and by William Booth, Karla Adam, Michael Birnbaum and Quentin Aries of The Washington Post.
A Section on 03/30/2019