LONDON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Monday afternoon that the crucial parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, originally scheduled for Tuesday, will be postponed.
In a statement in the British House of Commons, the prime minister said: "We will therefore defer the vote scheduled tomorrow," after acknowledging that "the deal would be rejected by a significant margin."
However, she did not offer any new proposed date for the parliamentary vote.
She said the Northern Ireland "backstop" is still a "widespread and deep concern" among MPs over the much criticized Brexit agreement reached last month between London and Brussels after months of painful negotiations.
A key part of the Brexit negotiations was about the border that separates Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The agreement on the Irish border was contained in the UK-EU Brexit deal.
Both London and Brussels committed to avoiding the return of a "hard border" -- physical checks or infrastructure -- after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.
"There is still a majority to be won in parliament with additional reassurance on backstop," she said, adding that she would also be "looking closely at new ways of empowering the House of Commons to ensure that any provision for a backstop has democratic legitimacy."
May wanted to enable MPs to place obligations on the government "to ensure that the backstop cannot be in place indefinitely."
The prime minister said she will continue talks with the EU leaders after the Brexit vote is postponed, but insisted that her deal honors result of the 2016 referendum.
There will be no successful Brexit without compromise on both sides, she said.
Her statement came just one day before the original schedule for the crucial vote in parliament, where opposition parties and rebels within the Conservative Party have vowed to foil the prime minister's efforts to have the deal passed.
Opposition Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn said ealier on Monday that May's Brexit deal is so disastrous that her government has taken the desperate step of delaying its own vote.
The prime minister, criticized by some of her fellow MPs for "wasting our crucial time," said the parliament is stepping up preparing for a no-deal Brexit.
By what was described as the unilateral postponement, the prime minister appeared to make a policy shift by giving up her last-ditch attempt to win over rebel Tory MPs over the Brexit deal.
Still fighting to brush aside the calls for a second referendum, May said a second referendum "will lead to the significant loss of faith in our democracy."
Also on Monday, Vince Cable, leader of Britain's pro-EU Union Liberal Democrats said his party will support a vote of no confidence in the prime minister if the Labour Party called for one.
"With the fiasco today, the government has really lost all authority," Cable said. "I and my colleagues will fully support the leader of the opposition if he now proceeds to a no confidence vote as duty surely calls."
