UK speaker stymies May's bid for 3rd vote on Brexit deal

The speaker of Britain's House of Commons dealt a potentially fatal blow to Prime Minister Theresa May's ailing Brexit deal on Monday, saying the government couldn't keep asking lawmakers to vote on the same deal they have already rejected twice.

The government intends to try a third time to get lawmakers to back the deal, ideally before May joins EU leaders Thursdays at a Brussels summit where she is set to ask the bloc to postpone Britain's departure. May has warned opponents that failure to approve the deal would mean a long, and possibly indefinite, delay to Brexit.

Speaker John Bercow said Monday that centuries-old parliamentary rules prevent a motion being brought back repeatedly for votes in the same session of Parliament.

He said the government could not "resubmit to the House the same proposition or substantially the same proposition." He said a new motion would have to be "fundamentally different. Not different in terms of wording, but different in terms of substance."
"The longer it is delayed, the more difficult it will certainly be."