2nd vote shouldn't happen
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May says parliament vote will be around January 15
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Survey shows Britons for staying in EU, want second referendum
Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday said that Britain would be in uncharted territory if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament later this month, despite little sign that she has won over sceptical lawmakers.
May also repeated her objections to holding a fresh public vote on the deal.
She said a second referendum would be divisive and disrespectful to those who voted to leave in the initial vote, and also highlighted the lack of time available to hold a new referendum.
"Practically, actually you couldn't get a referendum in time before the 29th of March - you'd be talking about extending Article 50," she said, referring to the two-year exit notice Britain sent to the EU in March 2017.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 but May's inability so far to get her deal for a managed exit through parliament has alarmed business leaders and investors who fear the country is heading for a damaging no-deal Brexit.
May said the vote in parliament would be around Jan 15, as expected, contrary to reports she could delay it. May has already delayed the vote once, in December, when it became clear she would lose unless extra reassurances from the EU were agreed.
Describing what would happen if she was defeated, May told the BBC: "We're going to be in uncharted territory. I don't think anybody can say exactly what will happen in terms of the reaction we'll see in parliament."
Amid the uncertainty over Britain's next steps - which range from leaving without a deal to not leaving at all - a poll showed more Britons want to remain a member of the EU than leave, and voters want to make the final decision themselves.
The survey by polling firm YouGov showed that if a referendum were held immediately, 46 percent would vote to remain, 39 percent would vote to leave, and the rest either did not know, would not vote, or refused to answer the question.
When the undecided and those who refused to answer were removed from the sample, the split was 54-46 in favour of remaining.
With the parliamentary debate on her deal due to begin on Jan. 9, May said there was still work to do to get reassurances over the Irish backstop from the EU. She also promised parliament would have a greater say in the rest of the Brexit process and warned that rejecting her deal could prevent Britain's exit.
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