‘We must honour the people’s vote’
PARLIAMENT’S vote on the final Brexit deal with Brussels will be “meaningful”, the Government insisted last night, as it rejected calls to let MPs overturn the referendum result.
Brexit minister Suella Braverman was speaking at a Westminster Hall debate about an e-petition signed by more than 113,000 people.
The petition called for the vote promised to MPs on the Brexit deal to include the option of staying in the EU – not just the choice between the deal that has been struck or leaving without one. It said: “A lesser of two evils choice between a bad deal and no deal is not acceptable. “Our MPs should be allowed to vote with their conscience to deliver what they believe is best for the country.” But Mrs Braverman said it would undermine faith in democracy if Parliament ignored the referendum vote to leave the EU.
“To those who say the Government’s approach isn’t ‘meaningful’, I say this: What more meaning can there be than to show that Parliament will faithfully enact the decision we trusted the public to make?” she added.
Shadow Brexit minister Paul Blomfield said Labour backed a Lords amendment to let MPs tell the Government what to do next if they did not like the exit deal.
But he also rejected the petition’s call saying: “Parliament does not have the political mandate to overturn the referendum.
“To do so would create a democratic crisis.”