Yorkshire MPs’ amendment could pass control to Commons
A CROSS-PARTY bid to stop a nodeal Brexit has been launched by a group of MPs who have laid down an amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement.
Led by Labour’s Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central, signatories to the document also include prominent Tories, showing how difficult Theresa May will find it to get her plan through Parliament unscathed.
Mr Benn said the amendment “opposes the deal, rejects a nodeal Brexit and would enable the House to express its view about what should happen next if the Prime Minister’s deal is defeated”.
Essentially it would hand power to MPs if Mrs May’s plans are rejected by the Commons.
They could then instruct her either to go back to the EU and try to negotiate a different deal, to try to extend Article 50, or even to hold another referendum.
Mr Benn, the chairman of the Brexit Select Committee, has enlisted the support of fellow West Yorkshire Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who heads the Home Affairs Committee.
It is also signed by Tory MP Dominic Grieve and Sarah Wollaston, who chair the Intelligence and Security Committee and Health Select Committee respectively.
Labour’s Meg Hillier and Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves, who head the Public Accounts and Business Select Committees, are also on board.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said it had his “full support”, tweeting on Thursday night that it was a “great amendment”.
Labour former foreign secretary Jack Straw said this signalled that party leader Jeremy Corbyn is “gradually moving” towards backing a second EU referendum.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday: “Hilary Benn’s proposal to ensure that there can’t be no deal, that is a staging post to having a second referendum.”
Up to six amendments will be chosen by Commons Speaker John Bercow for MPs to vote on when they give their verdict on the Withdrawal Agreement next month, although they will have no legal weight.
Separately, Culture and Media Secretary Jeremy Wright says the Prime Minister’s Brexit Deal, agreed with European leaders this month, will provide Leeds’s £1.3bn tech industry with the certainty it needs to continue to thrive.
The digital and technology sectors employ more than 12,000 people in the city and rely on freeflowing data to and from the European Union, the Government says.