North East MPs back Brexit bill in Commons

North East MPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of the Bill empowering the Prime Minister to serve notice the UK is quitting the EU last night.

The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill was given a second reading by 498 votes to 114 – a majority of 384.

Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central), Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow), Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West), Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields), Grahame Morris (Easington), Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) and Iain Wright (Hartlepool) all voted in favour of the Bill.

A total of 47 Labour MPs defied leader Jeremy Corbyn’s orders and voted against. Newcastle upon Tyne North’s Catherine McKinnell was the only North East MP to do so.

Ken Clarke was the only Conservative to vote against the legislation, which allows the Prime Minister to decide when to trigger Article 50 and therefore begin the twoyear process of negotiation on Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

Former Chancellor George Osborne warned blocking Brexit risked “putting Parliament against people” and provoking a “deep constitutional crisis.’

He added that the Government had chosen “not to make the economy the priority in this negotiation, they have prioritised immigration control”.

Mr Osborne also claimed negotiations would be a ‘trade off, as all divorces are, between access and money’, adding they could be “rather bitter” as he committed himself to the battle ahead.

Labour former leader Ed Miliband warned Mrs May against feeling an inevitable consequence of leaving the EU was being “driven into the arms” of US president Donald Trump.

Mr Miliband said: “I can go along with the Prime Minister that Brexit means Brexit, but I cannot go along with the idea that Brexit means Trump.”

An SNP-led wrecking amendment which attempted to stop the Bill from progressing was defeated by a majority of 236.