Bruised UK leader returns to Brussels for Brexit help

Friday, 14 December 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters): Britain’s weakened Prime Minister Theresa May headed for Brussels on Thursday to lobby European leaders for help after she survived a parliamentary mutiny that highlighted the deadlock over Brexit.

May won the backing of 200 Conservative Party members of parliament versus 117 against, in a secret ballot that deepened divisions just weeks before parliament needs to approve a deal to prevent a disorderly exit from the European Union.

In Britain’s biggest decision for decades, Brexit has split the nation and will shape the future of its $ 2.8 trillion (£ 2.21 trillion) economy including London’s status as a global financial hub.

Pro-Europeans fear exit will weaken the West, already struggling to assimilate Russian and Chinese power as well as Donald Trump’s unpredictable US presidency. Brexit supporters hail it as casting off a flailing German-led European project.

Brexit Minister Stephen Barclay said May, who has been shuttling round Europe for months, would seek assurances Britain would not be tied to the European Union indefinitely post-Brexit, as her party critics fear.