MPS make history in Brexit vote
BRITAIN: Boris Johnson said yesterday that ‘‘history has been made’’ after MPS voted overwhelmingly in favour of triggering Brexit negotiations and beginning the process of leaving the EU.
The Foreign Secretary called it a ‘‘momentous’’ night as MPS voted four to one in favour of triggering Article 50. Kenneth Clarke, a former chancellor, was the only Tory MP to oppose it.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, will today publish a White Paper formally setting out the Government’s plans for Brexit in response to the concerns of proeuropean Tory MPS. However, there were further signs of division among the Conservatives as George Osborne, the former chancellor, accused May of putting Brexit ahead of the economy and warned he will join the ‘‘fight’’ over Britain’s future outside the EU.
Yesterday’s vote means the Government’s Brexit legislation has cleared its first hurdle and May is on course to trigger the process by her March deadline. There had been 14-and-a-half hours of debate and bitter clashes in Parliament over two days as nearly 100 MPS expressed their views about Brexit. MPS finally voted in favour of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill by 498 votes to 114, with 47 Labour MPS, 50 SNP MPS and seven Liberal Democrats voting against.
It leaves Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, facing his third reshuffle in 18 months after 12 serving frontbenchers voted against it. Four members of his front bench team have already quit.
Johnson said: ‘‘I’ve just voted three times in the House of Commons for an absolutely momentous thing - to give our Prime Minister the right to trigger Article 50 and Britain to begin the path out of the EU. Don’t forget we may be leaving the EU treaties but we are not leaving Europe.
‘‘We are going to be making an amazingly positive contribution to our continent as we always have done and always will. But we are now able to forge a new identity with new free trade deals as global Britain.’’
However, Osborne said that May has chosen ‘‘not to make the economy the priority in this negotiation’’.
He said that there will be ‘‘lively debates’’ to come on migration, state aid and agricultural policy. ‘‘I will be in those fights for years to come,’’ he said. While he had argued ‘‘passionately’’ for Britain to stay in the European Union, Osborne said, he had ‘‘lost the case’’ and ‘‘sacrificed’’ his position in Government.
Ahead of the debate, May accused those planing to vote against Article 50 of abusing the trust of the people.
Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, said he would not oppose Article 50 even though he had not wanted the referendum. ‘‘We do not want to give the sense that people who voted for Brexit because they felt they had been ignored are being ignored once again,’’ he said.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, faced jeers of ‘‘where were you’’ from MPS after failing to turn up to the debate on Tuesday.
Telegraph Group