Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1071614
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post WEDNESDAY • 16 JANUARY 2019 • ISSUE 621 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY EDITORIAL • PAGE 9 DEAL REJECTED �BRITISH MPs TRASH THERESA MAY'S BREXIT DEAL SEE ANALYSIS ON PAGE 5 SAVIOUR BALZAN THE Nationalist Party's administrative council will be meeting today but there is no formal request to discuss the lead- er of Opposition's political position. Backbenchers who spoke to Malta- Today described how Mark Anthony Sammut, President of the PN Execu- tive Council, had approached them to back him on a call for Adrian Delia's position to be debated. Sammut ap- pears to have been encouraged by two prominent MPs. But many MPs have snubbed Mark Anthony Sammut, who today has to face an administrative council con- sisting of 17 members, the majority of whom are Delia back- ers. Delia's leadership not on agenda as administrative council meets today PAGE 5 Mark Anthony Sammut KURT SANSONE THERESA May's government will face a vote of no confidence later on today after the British parliament resound- ingly rejected her Brexit deal. The British Prime Minister suffered the heaviest defeat for any sitting gov- ernment yesterday when she lost the vote by a 230-vote margin. However, May is likely to win this af- ternoon's no confidence vote. The scale of defeat yesterday exceed- ed expectation with May having to contend with a split in her own Con- servative Party. The Prime Minister was defiant af- ter the vote as she urged MPs to work with the government to deliver a good alternative deal. A motion of no confidence was im- mediately put forward by Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn. British MPs rejected the withdrawal deal with 432 voting against and only 202 supporting it. The next largest de- feat can be traced back to 1924 when the minority Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald was defeated by margins of 166, 161 and 140. The rejected deal regulates the UK's exit from the EU on 29 March 2019, providing for a transition period until both sides reach an agreement on their future relations. In an immediate reaction to the vote, the EU made it clear that it would not reopen negotiations on the withdraw- al deal. European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker tweeted his regret at the vote. "I take note with regret of the outcome of the vote in the House of Commons… I urge the UK to clarify its intentions as soon as possible. Time is almost up," Juncker said. The EU has offered to shift the Brexit deadline by a few months. The Labour mayor of London Sadiq Khan called for a withdrawal of Arti- cle 50 – the exit clause in the EU treaty – and give the British people the final say with the option to stay in the EU. A defiant Theresa May has vowed to go n and will face a confidence motion today