UK Parliament Debates When exactly Britain Will leave the European Union

[Nairaland]

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When exactly will Britain leave the European Union?

Parliament started hours of debate Tuesday by arguing over when the two-year negotiating period for Brexit should end and whether there should be a fixed time at all.

It was just the first day of what promises to be a lengthy set of debates in Parliament on Prime Minister Theresa May's blueprint for leaving the EU — debates that will challenge her diminished authority and could force changes to her Brexit plan.

Her absence Tuesday on another engagement suggested she was not unduly worried by the initial discussion.

But the debate's ill-tempered tone showed the level of anger in a Parliament emboldened since May lost her Conservative Party's majority in a June election and was forced to garner the support of a small Northern Irish party to be able to pass legislation.

With catcalls, sarcastic jokes and jeers being bandied about — not just between the two main parties, as is the custom, but often within them — some lawmakers took issue with the government's plans to quit the EU at 11 p.m. on March 29.

One, from the opposition Labor Party, said Britain should leave the EU on March 30, 2019, preferring midnight British time to the government's proposal to leave an hour earlier — which would be midnight in Brussels.

That was determined to be "technically deficient" by the government minister on the opposite side of the House of Commons, who said any amendment trying to move the exit date and time threatened to push Britain into "legal chaos" if the country's statute book were not in order when it leaves.

"As a responsible government we must be ready to exit without a deal, even though we expect to conclude a deep and special partnership [with the EU]," he told Parliament.