May has told EU leaders she could pass her deal with concessions primarily around the backstop - a guarantee that there can be no return to border controls between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland. But a defeat in a symbolic vote in parliament on Thursday has weakened her pledge and increase the risk of a “no-deal” Brexit in 40 days. Unless May can get a Brexit deal approved by the British parliament, she will have to decide whether to delay Brexit or thrust the world’s fifth-largest economy into chaos by leaving without a deal at the end of March. “Businesses are now testing the airbags on their Brexit preparations,” said James Stewart, head of Brexit at KPMG UK. “There is no such thing as a managed ‘no deal’, it’s absolutely catastrophic for us,” senior vice president Katherine Bennett told Marr.

Source: bd News24 February 17, 2019 14:15 UTC