ASK FOR BREXIT EXTENSION

THE Prime Minister is to be congratulated on getting his Brexit Bill through Parliament, but I can’t help feel that the hiatus we’ve hit since is entirely of Boris’s own making.

His demand for a December 12 General Election is tantamount to saying that he doesn’t want the thorny issue of Brexit to be put to rest.

Surely the solution to the current conundrum in the Commons is easy and in the PM’s own hands. Furthermore, it should be his absolute priority.

All he had to do (and he can still do it) is to ask Brussels for a short, flexible and final extension of not more than three months and then give MPs a deadline of, say, one month or even less to study the agreement in detail, take legal and any other necessary advice and introduce their proposed amendments in the house.

If an amended version should be approved by the Commons, that would become the new Bill, which would go to the Lords for approval.

If amendments fail to win support, the Bill as it stands – having already been approved – would go to the Lords for approval and become law.

We could be out of the EU with an agreement by the end of January or sooner and, having waited for more than three years to get to this stage, what difference will another two or three months make?

If an amendment that kept us in the EU Customs Union were to be voted through, it would be a huge bonus for the UK.

It would resolve the Irish border issue and let us retain our world markets, which we will lose if we crash out without a deal, while otherwise fulfilling the terms of the 2016 referendum.