UK
MPs back Theresa May’s Brexit bill
The
vote completes the passage through the House of Commons.
By CHARLIE
COOPER 2/8/17, 10:24 PM CET Updated 2/8/17, 11:01 PM CET
LONDON — British
MPs on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to authorize the government to
trigger Article 50 — the formal notification of the country’s
intention to leave the EU after 44 years of membership.
Prime Minister
Theresa May’s Article 50 bill, which she was forced to bring before
parliament by a Supreme Court ruling last month, was backed by 494
MPs, with 122 voting against.
The vote completes
the bill’s passage through the House of Commons. It will now go to
the House of Lords and it’s expected to be ratified by early March,
in time for May’s self-imposed deadline for triggering Article 50
by the end of that month.
“The Lords will
face an overwhelming public call to be abolished if they now try and
frustrate this bill — they must get on and deliver the will of the
British people,” said a government official on condition of
anonymity.
With the backing of
the ruling Conservative party and the instruction from the Labour
leadership that their MPs back the bill, the outcome of the vote was
a foregone conclusion. However, 52 Labour MPs defied the party whip
to vote against Article 50 — five more than rebelled on the bill’s
second reading at an earlier stage of the parliamentary process last
week.
The Scottish
National Party, the Liberal Democrats, Wales’ Plaid Cymru, Northern
Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party, Green MP Caroline
Lucas and lone Tory rebel Kenneth Clarke also voted against it.
“It would also be
wrong to set unilateral demands before negotiations have even begun”
— David Jones, Brexit minister
Labour leader Jeremy
Corbyn was left damaged by the resignation of his highly-regarded
Shadow Business Secretary Clive Lewis, who confirmed at the eleventh
hour that he would not be following the party line.
Lewis, who
represents the strongly Remain-supporting Norwich South constituency,
said he could not “in all good conscience vote for something I
believe will ultimately harm the city I have the honor to represent,
love and call home.”
After a marathon
round of voting on amendments, MPs finally came to the bill itself at
8:15 p.m. As lawmakers made their way into the chamber, SNP MPs
struck up a chorus of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy — the anthem of the
European Union — until Deputy Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle
instructed them to stop.
All amendments, laid
by opposition parties in an attempt to steer the government’s
negotiating strategy, were defeated. The Conservative leadership had
instructed its MPs to vote down all amendments to give May a free
hand in the negotiations and to enable the bill to pass without
delay.
David Jones, the
Brexit minister who led for the government during the parliamentary
debate, insisted that the issues raised by the amendments could be
debated at a later state in the Brexit process. “These amendments
are not for this bill, instead they are for the many future debates
that will take place,” he told MPs.
“Our intention, as
set out in the white paper, is to leave the EU,” he said. “It
would also be wrong to set unilateral demands before negotiations
have even begun.”
An amendment seeking
to guarantee the continued residency rights of EU citizens living in
the U.K. was not backed by the government, despite the principle
having widespread support across the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, 19 Labour
MPs, including five members of Corbyn’s shadow frontbench team,
joined with the Liberal Democrats to vote for an amendment calling
for a second referendum to ratify the terms of the Brexit deal.
Labour MPs had been
instructed to abstain on the vote and in total only 33 MPs backed it.
Tim Farron, the
Liberal Democrat leader, who has sought to position his pro-EU party
as the natural home for voters who backed Remain at the referendum,
accused Labour of writing “a blank check” for May’s government.
“Labour tonight
have lost the right to be called the official opposition,” he said.
“History will judge them harshly for their failure to stand firm in
defense of future generations of Britons who will suffer as a
result.”
Authors:
Charlie Cooper
The
Guardian view on parliament and Brexit: MPs fail their first test
Editorial
The
courts ruled that legislators must decide on Britain’s place in
Europe. The Commons has not learned its lessons yet
Wednesday 8 February
2017 20.31 GMT
Last month, Gina
Miller stood outside the supreme court and celebrated the judges’
confirmation that parliament must sit behind the wheel in the Brexit
process, not the prime minister invoking the medieval royal
prerogative. A little more than two weeks later, the House of Commons
has decided that Theresa May is the driver after all. Ms Miller
fought long and hard, and at great personal cost, to ensure that the
Commons could assert its lawful sovereignty over the Brexit process.
On that morning in January she invited them to use “their
invaluable experience and expertise” to set Britain’s course. But
as the European Union (notification of withdrawal) bill comfortably
passed its third reading in the Commons she was entitled to ask
herself whether her efforts have really been worth it after all.
The Guardian UK:
Politics Weekly MPs back Brexit and Trump's travel ban – Politics
Weekly podcast
Anushka Asthana is
joined by Kate Andrews, Sonia Sodha and Owen Jones in a week where
the government’s short Brexit bill cleared its first parliamentary
hurdle.
Listen
It is tempting to
say that MPs have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. That
is because in many respects they have. Faced with a bill that sets in
motion the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, which is as profoundly
mistaken a decision as any that the UK parliament has taken in the
postwar era, MPs have essentially said that last year’s referendum
is sovereign and that they are powerless to put their foot on the
brake or choose a different route.
Too many on both
sides of the Commons nonsensically deployed their experience and
expertise to vote for a bill they admitted to not supporting. Too
many MPs genuflected to a referendum decision that sets Britain
against its neighbours and its own place in the world and puts the UK
economy at hazard. It fell hardest for Labour, a pro-European party
with many leave constituencies, where the EU dilemma is entangled
with other issues about Labour’s future. It is a wrong decision
because MPs have given far too little careful attention over the
years to deciding the proper place, if any at all, of referendums in
a representative democracy. The consequences of that have been
painfully clear in the past two weeks.
Referendums are too
often cuckoos in the nest of parliamentary sovereignty. But the
passing of this bill is also wrong because this particular referendum
made such a lamentable choice about the future of Britain. Britain
should be part of Europe. That has not changed. However, the Brexit
vote took parliament’s authority away, politically if not
constitutionally, and not even Ms Miller’s heroic efforts have been
able fully to restore that authority. Two thirds or more of MPs think
that Brexit is the wrong course. But, as Wednesday night’s vote
confirmed, too many of them felt compelled to go through the lobbies
in support of a bill that they believe, correctly in our view, will
damage Britain. It is not they as individuals who have been found
wanting. It is parliament.
Yet not all is lost.
Three days of the committee stage of the bill this week, as well as
the brief third reading debate, have exposed big Brexit-related
issues on which the majority of MPs seek outcomes that Mrs May would
have been reluctant to concede or contemplate in the absence of
parliamentary pressure. In particular, Mrs May has been forced to
make procedural concessions about parliament’s later role in the
process. Whether these concessions are real or a con will depend on
how MPs act when the time comes. MPs have also made it clear that
they expect the existing rights of EU citizens to live in the UK to
be an inalienable part of any final deal. Other markers have also
been laid down. These do not entirely compensate for the original
wrong decision on Brexit or the second reading of the bill last week.
But they mean the forces of openness and internationalism live to
fight another day. And fight they must.
The most disturbing
aspect of an admittedly difficult set of decisions for MPs and
parties over the past two weeks has been the caution with which
parliament’s “soft Brexit” majority has behaved. That must
change. Most opposition MPs and a large minority of Conservative MPs
favour a soft as opposed to a hard Brexit. They must surely also want
a good deal rather than either a bad deal or no deal at all. Yet
cross-party cooperation has been too hesitant. Perhaps the
vituperation of the rightwing press against “remoaners” has
frightened too many in both main parties. Perhaps Tory liberals don’t
want to fall out with Mrs May too soon. Whatever the truth,
pro-European MPs in all parties need to relearn the practicalities of
using their power as effectively as the Eurosceptics learned to use
theirs long ago. There will be plenty more opportunities. They must
be taken.
Clive
Lewis quits shadow cabinet as Brexit bill passes with huge majority
Labour’s
business spokesman among 52 Labour MPs to defy party’s three-line
whip, but bill to trigger article 50 clears Commons with majority of
372
Heather Stewart and
Anushka Asthana
Thursday 9 February
2017 00.34 GMT First published on Wednesday 8 February 2017 20.12 GMT
Clive Lewis, the MP
for Norwich South, has resigned from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet
as the government’s Brexit bill was passed overwhelmingly by MPs,
completing its passage through the House of Commons without a single
amendment.
The historic bill
was passed overwhelmingly, by 494 votes to 122, and will now pass to
the House of Lords, where Labour and Liberal Democrat peers will
press for concessions on key issues including the status of European
Union citizens living in the United Kingdom.
But its emphatic
passage through the Commons means that Theresa May appears to be on
track to meet her self-imposed deadline of triggering article 50 –
and starting the formal process to quit the EU – by the end of
March.
A potential
Conservative rebellion melted away, as the government made a series
of tactical concessions to smooth the passage of the bill, including
publishing a white paper setting out its negotiating priorities, and
promising that MPs will be allowed to vote on the exit deal before
their counterparts in the European parliament.
The bill’s passage
through the Commons was hailed by Brexit supporters. Former Ukip
leader Nigel Farage, who campaigned for decades for an EU referendum,
said: “I never thought I’d see the day where the House of Commons
overwhelmingly voted for Britain to leave the European Union.”
Brexit secretary
David Davis said: “We’ve seen a historic vote tonight – a big
majority for getting on with negotiating our exit from the EU and a
strong, new partnership with its member states.”
Lewis was one of 52
Labour MPs who rebelled against Corbyn’s three-line whip to vote
against the legislation, which authorises the government to trigger
article 50 – the formal process for exiting the EU.
With his resignation
as shadow business secretary, Lewis became the fourth shadow cabinet
member to resign rather than vote in favour, the Labour MP Jo Stevens
having resigned before the first vote on the bill took place.
Lewis represents
Norwich South, a constituency that voted strongly to remain in the EU
in last year’s referendum, and had been openly agonising about
whether he could bring himself to support the legislation.
“When I became the
MP for Norwich South, I promised my constituents I would be Norwich’s
voice in Westminster, not Westminster’s voice in Norwich,” Lewis
said. “I therefore cannot, in all good conscience, vote for
something I believe will ultimately harm the city I have the honour
to represent, love and call home.
“It is therefore
with a heavy heart that I have decided to resign from the shadow
cabinet.”
After stepping down
Lewis thanked his supporters in a tweet referencing the Kobayashi
Maru test from Star Trek, in which cadets are given a no-win scenario
in order to test their strength of character.
Widely seen as a
rising star on the left of the party, Lewis voted for the bill at its
second reading of the bill last week; but made it clear that if
Labour failed to amend the legislation he could not do so again. When
the last potential amendment failed on Wednesday night, Labour issued
a statement saying he had stepped down.
The Guardian UK:
Politics Weekly MPs back Brexit and Trump's travel ban – Politics
Weekly podcast
Anushka Asthana is
joined by Kate Andrews, Sonia Sodha and Owen Jones in a week where
the government’s short Brexit bill cleared its first parliamentary
hurdle.
Listen
Some see him as a
potential leadership candidate, who could act as a bridge between the
Corbynite wing of the party, and the so-called soft left. But in the
corridors MPs were being quite disparaging about what some called his
“flip flopping” in recent days about whether he could back the
bill.
As Lewis stood
outside the lobbies one Tory MP asked if he’d put a suit on
especially for the occasion given the heavy focus on his decision.
Corbyn said: “I
would like to thank Clive for his work in the shadow cabinet, which
has underlined what an asset he is to the Labour party and our
movement.
“I understand the
difficulties MPs representing constituencies which voted remain have
in relation to the European Union withdrawal bill. MPs have a duty to
represent their constituents as well as their party. However, the
Labour party respects the outcome of the EU referendum, so we have
asked all Labour MPs to vote for the bill at its third reading.”
Corbyn will have
been relieved that the rebellion on his benches was only modestly
larger than last week, at the bill’s second reading, when 47 MPs
defied the party line, and there were three resignations from the
front bench, including two shadow cabinet ministers, Dawn Butler and
Rachael Maskell.
Diane Abbott, the
Hackney North MP who was absent from last week’s second reading of
the bill, citing a migraine, voted in favour of the bill, despite
speculation that she was concerned about the reaction of her
pro-remain constituents.
In her official
response to the vote she said that while she accepted the result of
the referendum, “this does not mean that we have to accept Brexit
in the haphazard way in which it is being handed to us”.
Abbott said: “This
passage of this bill has been a challenge for Labour. Our MPs
represent the top six most passionately pro-leave constituencies, and
the six most passionately pro-remain constituencies ... I voted for
the bill as a loyal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and a loyal member of
the shadow cabinet.”
Abbott later said
Brexit was not the leftwing idea imagined by Labour stalwart Tony
Benn, but an “ugly” state of affairs more akin to the politics of
US president Donald Trump.
She told BBC
Newsnight: “I respect the result of the referendum and no-one
wanted to thwart it in a perverse kind of way. But we need to be
clear, this is not a Tony Benn Brexit, this is Donald Trump Brexit,
and it’s got a very ugly side.”
Corbyn will now have
to embark on a reshuffle, and must also decide how to treat
frontbenchers outside the shadow cabinet, including three of his own
whips, who rebelled. Labour sources said decisions would be made “in
the next few days”.
MPs had earlier
rejected a series of potential amendments to the legislation, many of
them backed by Labour, on issues including tax havens, workers’
rights and the future of EU citizens living in the UK, repeatedly
filing in and out of the Commons chamber to hold nine votes in quick
succession.
A Liberal Democrat
amendment calling for a referendum on the terms of Britain’s new
relationship with the EU received the backing of just 33 MPs, 19 of
them Labour: that included former leadership contender Owen Smith,
and frontbenchers Catherine West and Daniel Zeichner.
Corbyn will now have
to decide what to do about frontbenchers who refused to toe the line
and voted against the bill for a second time, including three party
whips, Thangam Debbonnaire, Jeff Smith and Vicky Foxcroft.
Labour’s shadow
Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has repeatedly insisted the party
must try to speak for both leavers and remainers, rather than trying
to block Brexit.
Separately, Theresa
May used an interview in the New Statesman to say that she hopes
Labour voters will consider backing the Conservatives, as they focus
on domestic reforms, as well as pressing ahead with Brexit.
“I hope there are
Labour voters out there who will now look at us afresh and say,
‘Labour hasn’t responded to our concerns, it hasn’t recognised
what matters to us, but the Conservatives have seen that and are
responding to it.’ I want our greater prosperity not to be confined
to particular groups of people or a single part of the country.”
May also rejected
the claims of George Osborne, the former chancellor, who argued in
the House of Commons last week that the government had failed to put
the economy first by deciding to abandon single market membership and
prioritise control of immigration.
“What we say is:
what is the outcome that we want to achieve? And it is possible to
achieve an outcome which is both a good result for the economy and is
a good result for people who want us to control immigration – to be
able to set our own rules on the immigration of people coming from
the European Union,” she said. “It is perfectly possible to find
an arrangement and a partnership with the EU which does that.”
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