Faced with a Brexit vote she cannot win, Prime Minister Theresa May appears to be gambling that running down the clock to a no-deal departure might change the arithmetic in Parliament.
Less than 24 hours after Environment Secretary Michael Gove insisted the vote on May's Brexit deal will go ahead Tuesday, it seemed likely to be at least a month away. Parliament goes on recess on Dec. 20 and lawmakers will not return until Jan. 7. Meanwhile Britain leaves the European Union on March 29, with or without a deal.
A Cabinet ally of May's, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the prime minister's strategy more charitably, saying that if the deal cannot go through then the only option is to keep talking — to EU leaders, in the hope they might offer something more, and to lawmakers, in the hope they might ask a little less.