Brexit: what happens next?

It’s been a turbulent few weeks in the Palace of Westminster and while Britons may all be bored silly by the sight of MPs arguing about what they think the people actually want, the drama shows no sign of stopping.

What’s happened so far

Since MPs first rejected the prime minister’s negotiated Brexit deal back in January in a shockingly large defeat, we’ve seen MPs desperately try to take control of the parliamentary timetable. They have amended various business motions to try to carve out some parliamentary time (the government normally controls the agenda) to change the process by which parliament was considering Brexit. They wanted a series of different Brexit options (soft Brexit, hard Brexit etc.) to be put before MPs in what’s known as “indicative votes”. This would give them an opportunity to indicate which options they support in the hope of identifying a way out of the impasse.

Back in January they were successful only in forcing the prime minister to come back to the House with a Brexit update sooner than planned. When the final deal was put before MPs for a second time on March 14, MPs once again rejected it, albeit by a smaller margin of around 150 votes. The...