May a step closer to Brexit trigger
DEAL OR NOT, BRITAIN WILL LEAVE THE EU Even if approved, the Bill will still have to pass through the House of Lords.
MPs were set to approve a Bill yesterday empowering Prime Minister Theresa May to start Brexit negotiations, in a major step towards Britain leaving the European Union (EU).
Seven months after the historic referendum vote to leave the 28-nation bloc, the House of Commons was expected to grant its approval for May to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.
The Bill will still have to pass through the House of Lords, where there may be more opposition from unelected peers less concerned about defying the majority of voters who backed Brexit.
But if the Bill passed its Commons stage in a vote late yesterday, May will be significantly closer to her goal of starting the two-year exit talks by the end of March.
Under pressure from MPs, the government was forced to concede on Tuesday that parliament would have a vote on the final Brexit deal before it is signed off.
The move helped fend off a rebellion by pro-European members of May’s Conservative party, who had threatened to back an opposition amendment to the two-clause Bill.
But ministers stressed that if lawmakers rejected the final deal, the alternative was not to return to negotiations but to leave the EU without an agreement.
“This will be a meaningful vote. It will be a choice between leaving the European Union with a negotiated deal or not,” Brexit Minister David Jones said.
If there was no deal, Britain would fall back on World Trade Organisation rules to determine its trade with the EU.
More than two-thirds of MPs campaigned against Brexit in the June referendum, but after 52% of Britons voted to leave the EU, most have reluctantly accepted that they must uphold the result.
When May introduced her Brexit Bill last month, following a Supreme Court ruling that she must seek parliament’s approval to start the process, the opposition Labour party promised not to block it. – AFP