By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal</p> <p>LONDON (AA) – British lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday forcing Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a further delay to the UK’s departure from the European Union in order to avoid a no-deal scenario.</p> <p>The legislation — also known as the Cooper Bill because it was proposed by Labour MP Yvette Cooper — passed in a 313 to 312 vote.</p> <p>The bill was rushed through all its stages in about six hours.</p> <p>It will need to be passed by the House of Lords, however, and the extension would also have to be approved by the EU next week. </p> <p>The move came on the same day that May and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn met to discuss ideas to break the Brexit impasse.</p> <p>The two leaders will resume Brexit talks on Thursday, after both Downing Street and the Labour Party described initial talks as “constructive”.</p> <p>“We have had constructive exploratory discussions about how to break the Brexit deadlock,” a Labour spokesperson said.</p> <p>“We have agreed a programme of work between our teams to explore the scope for agreement.</p> <p>“I put forward Labour’s alternative plan and raised the option of a public vote to prevent No Deal or leaving on a bad deal,” Corbyn said on Twitter.</p> <p>“There wasn’t as much change in her position as I expected, but we'll have further discussions tomorrow,” he added.</p> <p>However, Corbyn also came under pressure from his own party to raise with May a “confirmatory public vote” on any deal they might agree on.</p> <p>The Scottish National Party (SNP) has also expressed its demand for a confirmatory referendum.</p> <p>May’s talks with Corbyn received a reaction from her own Conservative MPs, who defended an immediate leave without a deal instead of a softer version of Brexit.</p> <p>Two junior ministers resigned from the government Wednesday in reaction to May’s latest strategy.</p> <p>With the first extended Brexit deadline looming on April 12, May said Tuesday that the UK needs an additional short extension from the EU.</p> <p>“So today I am taking action to break the logjam: I am offering to sit down with the Leader of the Opposition and to try to agree a plan — that we would both stick to — to ensure that we leave the European Union and that we do so with a deal.”</p> <p>“We need to focus on…our future relationship with the EU,” May said.</p> <p>“The ideal outcome of this process would be to agree an approach on a Future Relationship that delivers on the result of the Referendum, that both the Leader of the opposition and I could put to the House for approval, and which I could then take to next week’s European Council” set for April 10.</p> <p>May added that if “a single unified approach” cannot be reached, “then we would instead agree a number of options for the future relationship that we could put to the House in a series of votes to determine which course to pursue”.</p> <p>
