Her toughest week-Theresa May is struggling to retain her party’s support as the Brexit deadline looms

• With just months left for the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union, there is little clarity on the terms of its exit, or indeed whether the verdict of the 2016 referendum can be honoured at all.
• Instead, Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is facing a possible vote of no confidence, orchestrated by her own deeply divided Conservative Party, over the modalities of a future relationship with the EU.
• At the heart of this bitter dispute is the withdrawal deal with the other 27 nations in the bloc, which would leave the country largely bound to current regulations, with diminished influence over policy formulation.
• Even those pro-Brexit Ministers who have chosen to stick with Ms. May are anxious that the terms of withdrawal be altered.
• But they are opposed to the proposed compromise arrangement in return, which could lock Britain into a customs union with the EU for an indefinite period and constrain its ability to strike trade deals.
• May’s failure to win parliamentary backing for the exit deal would raise the risk of a no-deal Brexit, with potentially chaotic ramifications.
• Both the U.K. and the EU know that averting such a nightmare is in their mutual interest.
• Meanwhile, growing uncertainties over Britain’s future on the global stage only expose the hollowness of the Leave campaign and the fragility of its leadership.

The Hindu