May delays Brexit vote

Labour Party lawmakers clamored for British Prime Minister Theresa May to resign on Monday after her speech delaying the parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal. May acknowledged she expected to lose the vote initially scheduled for Tuesday by a “significant margin.” Her plan for how to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union received approval from Cabinet ministers last month.

U.K. voters approved Brexit in June 2016, but the British and EU governments are still working out details of their split. Critics said the agreement May made with the EU does not go far enough to achieve economic independence for the country. May told the House of Commons any agreement would require a compromise and hers is “the best deal that is negotiable.” She also told the lawmakers to brace for a situation where the country exits the EU on March 29, 2019, without a plan, saying “as long as we fail to agree to a deal, the risk of an accidental ‘no deal’ increases.” Following the canceled vote, the pound sterling fell to a 20-month low of $1.2515 against the U.S. dollar.