The British Parliament failed to allow any of the four Brexit alternatives laid out on Monday with the customs union proposal getting defeated by the smallest margin at only three votes down.
According to BBC News, 276 voted for this particular Brexit alternative while 273 voted against it. If the proposal won the hearts of MPs, there is a good chance the U.K. will retain its tariff system with the European Union (EU). However, a customs union agreement will block the United Kingdom from signing independent trade agreements with other countries outside the EU.
Nick Boles' motion for Britain to stay in the Single Market (Common Market 2.0) has also been defeated and following the disappointing results, the MP for Grantham and Stamford resigned from his post in the Conservative Party.
In a tweet after the voting sessions, Boles clarified that he will remain as an MP but he will sit in the British House of Commons as "an Independent Progressive Conservative." While walking out of the Commons, Boles received some applause from other MPs while some reportedly shouted: "don't go Nick."
With all four motions failing to win a majority vote, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay noted that the last option for Parliament was to come to an agreement to avoid a devastating no deal Brexit. "It the House is able to pass a deal this week it may still be possible to avoid holding European elections," he said.
Economists pointed out that another option for the British Parliament is to lean on a longer Brexit extension since the EU has given Prime Minister Theresa May a deadline of April 12 for MPs to agree on a withdrawal deal.
May's deal that she has agreed on with the EU was defeated three times since mid-January. The Prime Minister previously said MPs have been very clear with what they want but they keep failing to agree on what they don't want for the U.K.
British author and newspaper editor and columnist, Sir Simon Jenkins, said in his entry for The Guardian ahead of the Commons vote that a customs union majority vote is what Parliament should rely on at this point.
Dubbed as a "soft" Brexit of some sort, the motion, if approved, could have at least led Parliament to demand May to approach Brussels with a softer agreement that shuts down the idea of leaving without a deal.
"Yet they are ready to damage the economy, bring down their leader and possibly split their party. They lost the argument for no-deal Brexit. They have fallen back on blind tribal xenophobia," Jenkins said of the MPs.
