Pro-Brexit MP votes to ‘remain’ for constituents
ONE of the few Birmingham MPs to campaign in favour of leaving the European Union voted against Brexit in the House of Commons this week.
Roger Godsiff, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, said he backed leaving the EU but had to respect the views of his constituents who voted for “remain” in last year’s referendum.
Mr Godsiff was one of only two Birmingham MPs to support Brexit in the referendum in June 2016. The other was Birmingham Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart (Lab).
Birmingham as a whole voted narrowly to leave the EU. But a break- down of voting by constituency showed that 66.4 per cent of voters in Mr Godsiff ’s Hall Green constituency voted for remain.
MPs gave Theresa May the green light on Wednesday to begin Brexit negotiations under the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017, allowing the Prime Minister to trigger Article 50 and begin the process of leaving the EU.
The government won an overwhelming majority for Mrs May to start formal Brexit talks – 498 MPs voted in favour while 114 voted against, a majority of 384. But more than 40 Labour rebels defied their leadership to vote against the Bill.
There will now be further debates next week when they will have the chance to amend the Brexit Bill.
Mr Godsiff said: “In Birmingham six of the ten constituencies voted to leave despite the fact that all six MPs campaigned to remain.
“The four constituencies that voted to remain included my constituency of Hall Green and I made it clear, after the result was announced, that now that ‘representative democracy’ had returned I would not be voting to trigger Article 50 out of respect for the clearly expressed wishes of the majority of voters in my constituency.
“This remains my position and I will not be voting to trigger Article 50 when Parliament votes on this issue.”
Mr Godsiff said he disagreed with the decision of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the shadow cabinet to impose a three line whip on Labour MPs requiring them to vote for Article 50.
Every MP is supposed to obey the whip, and any shadow minister who disobeys is likely to be fired from that role.
Mr Godsiff said: “I did not think it wise for the leadership to impose a three line whip on Labour MPs to support the Government’s positon.
“The most sensible approach would have been to allow Labour MPs a free vote so that they could take into account the majority views of their constituents.”
Mr Godsiff said he would not oppose holding a second referendum inviting voters to approve the final deal between the UK and the EU but he said he stood by his view that the UK was right to be leaving.
Negotiations on a deal with the EU will begin officially once Article 50 has been triggered.