PM ‘resolute’ on deadline for Brexit
Johnson adamant UK will leave EU on October 31 despite Commons setback
BORIS JOHNSON remains resolute that the UK will still quit the EU in 11 days’ time, as he prepares to face yet another crucial week in Parliament.
Despite being forced by Parliament to request a Brexit delay from Brussels, ministers talkedup their chances of rushing Brexit legislation through the Commons yesterday.
But the Government faces a potential clash with Commons Speaker John Bercow today when he will rule on whether the Prime Minister can hold a “meaningful vote” on his Brexit deal.
The Prime Minister scrapped plans for a vote in Saturday’s special sitting – dubbed Super Saturday – after an amendment put forward by former Tory Minister Sir Oliver Letwin and Leeds Central Labour MP Hilary Benn passed.
But the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove said it was the Government’s “determined policy” to still leave the EU on October 31.
He said: “We know that the EU want us to leave, we know that we have a deal that allows us to leave.”
Mr Gove told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “We are going to leave by October 31.
“We have the means and the ability to do so... yesterday we had some people who voted for delay, voted explicitly to try to frustrate this process and to drag it out.”
Mr Gove claimed the parliamentary defeat had increased the risk of a no-deal Brexit and he was “triggering” Operation Yellowhammer – the Government’s plan to deal with such a scenario.
While Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he believed the
Government could get its deal through Parliament.
He said: “We seem to have the numbers in the House of Commons.
“A lot of people say ‘Get this done and move on’.”
He added: “I don’t speak for the EU but I do know from commentary, both inside Brussels and from EU member states, that they are fed up with this now and we are fed up with it.”
Former Cabinet Minister Amber Rudd, who quit the Tory whip, said she would back Mr Johnson’s deal, as have a number of Labour MPs in defiance of their party.
Ms Rudd said: “I think there is a coalition for getting the Prime Minister’s deal through. I do think it will get through.”
Asked if the EU was going to be open to an extension, its chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said Mr Tusk would consider the next stage. He told reporters: “As foreseen, the EU ambassadors meet this morning to take the next steps of the (EU) ratification and tomorrow I will await the European Parliament.”
It is likely that the EU will assess the situation in the Commons before formally responding to the extension request.
Commons leader Jacob ReesMogg told MPs the Government aimed to hold a meaningful vote on the Brexit deal on Monday and would make an emergency business statement to achieve this.
Commons Speaker Mr Bercow said he would consider whether to allow the Government’s plans.
If and when the vote is allowed, Labour is planning to try and hijack the legislation when he presents it to MPs by tabling amendments demanding a new referendum and customs union with the EU.
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer indicated that Labour could even support the Withdrawal Agreement Bill if a new national poll on it is backed by MPs.
But Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Johnson of “behaving a bit like a spoilt brat” in the way he communicated with Brussels over the extension request he was forced to write. He said the PM could be in contempt of Parliament and the courts over the issue.
A lot of people say ‘Get this done and move on’. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
LABOUR WILL push for a new EU referendum when the Government brings its Brexit plans to the Commons in the coming days.
Boris Johnson suffered an embarrassing defeat on Saturday when MPs voted by 322 to 306 in favour of an amendment withholding approval of his Brexit deal until legislation to implement it is in place.
The amendment tabled by former Cabinet Minister Sir Oliver Letwin was intended to force him to comply with the so-called Benn Act requiring him to seek a Brexit extension.
It saw the Prime Minister try to distance himself from a legally required request for a Brexit extension by stressing to the EU it was sent at Parliament’s bidding.
He got a senior diplomat to send an unsigned photocopy of the call by MPs to delay withdrawal from the bloc, after he had previously said he would rather “die in a ditch” than ask for an extension.
He earlier told MPs he would not negotiate an extension with the EU.
In a second note to European Council president Donald Tusk, the PM said a Brexit extension would be “deeply corrosive”.
The stance is likely to spark a fierce political row.
The PM rang European leaders, including Mr Tusk, declaring that the letter “is Parliament’s letter, not my letter”.
The development came as the PM wrote to all Tory MPs and peers insisting a delay is “not a solution”.
The Government wants to bring the deal back before Parliament next week. But yesterday Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer left open the possibility that Labour could back Boris Johnson’s deal if a new national poll was attached to it.
Sir Keir insisted that any agreement approved by Parliament needed to be put to voters in a referendum and the party would back an amendment calling for one. The Labour heavyweight told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We need an amendment to say that whatever deal gets through, it should be subject to a referendum.
“We have already voted, I think, three times as a party for a second referendum with a three-line whip behind it.
“The position we have adopted is whatever the outcome, whether it’s Boris Johnson’s bad deal or a better one which could be secured, it has got to go to a referendum up against remain.”
Asked if Labour could back the Government’s deal if it came with the pledge of a new referendum, Sir Keir said: “Well, we’ll see what that looks like.
“What we are trying to achieve is that this deal in particular, but any deal, is put up against Remain in a referendum.
“And we will have to see tactically how we get there.”
Sir Keir said Labour would also push for a customs union.
He said: “We have been arguing for a very long time now for a customs union with the EU and for single market alignment.”
But the DUP, whose votes Mr Johnson will depend on and who so far have rejected the deal, said it is not backing a second Brexit referendum.
DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said: “The DUP does not seek a second referendum, merely implementation of the first.”
House of Commons Speaker John Bercow will this morning decide whether he will allow the Government to bring the deal back to Parliament for another meaningful vote. If it is not allowed today, it is likely it would be later on this week.
Welsh Labour MP Chris Bryant said, in a point of order, that it is not good practice for a Government to keep holding debates on the exact same subject.
If a vote does happen, one unnamed Scottish opposition MP has been quoted as saying next week will not be a simple case of the Government just winning a vote on their new deal.
“We’ll amend it (over and over). It’ll be totally disfigured. A different Bill entirely,” the MP reportedly said.
THE RESOLUTION being shown by Boris Johnson – and senior Cabinet Ministers – over Brexit will reassure most of the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union, and all those who favour an immediate resolution to this political crisis.
Their steadfastness, after MPs voted in the Saturday showdown in the Commons to delay ratification of the PM’s exit deal, showed they have still not given up hope of leaving the EU in 10 days time on October 31.
Yet, as MPs brace themselves for another totemic week of political and legal wrangling as Speaker John Bercow determines whether it is within order to put Mr Johnson’s plans to a meaningful vote, Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy’s response spoke volumes.
Shrugging his shoulders in despair when asked what happens next after MPs backed Tory grandee Sir Oliver Letwin’s delay mechanism that “withholds approval” until legislation implementing the agreement has been passed, he told Sky News: “I don’t know.”
Full marks for honesty. And he’s not alone. No one is now able to second guess the intentions of the outgoing Speaker or rival Leave and Remain factions – even more so in a week which was due, until this latest Brexit stalemate, to be dominated by votes on the Queen’s Speech.
With the PM leading a minority administration, and relations with Northern Ireland’s DUP now in tatters, there would – in normal circumstances – be every prospect of the legislative programme being defeated, thereby forcing a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson and, quite possibly, leading to Parliament’s dissolution and an election.
Yet these are not normal times – the Government’s opponents do lack unity – and there is a likelihood that the current stalemate will intensify unless leaders heed Theresa May, Mr Johnson’s predecessor, after she warned that this Parliament will be guilty of the “most egregious con trick” on the British people if it fails to deliver Brexit.
It is why the Government must be clear, at the outset of a new political week, about its precise intentions – the petulance shown by Mr Johnson, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and others is unacceptable – and how MPs can scrutinise a deal which, let it be remembered, will have profound economic consequences for every family and every region, of the United Kingdom.
However, at the same time, the leaders of the Remain groupings – most of whom voted in favour of holding a referendum in June 2016, the subsequent triggering of Article
50 and 2017 manifesto commitments backing the implementation of Brexit – need to be clear about their objectives. Is it to frustrate Brexit, force a second referendum or overturn the original result? They can’t keep blocking the Government for opposition’s sake.
And then there are the courts. Though the Supreme Court ruled, in an unprecedented case, that last month’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful, Brexit should, primarily, be a matter for elected MPs – they should not be looking to involve the judiciary in the minutiae of political procedure as Mr Johnson’s high stakes strategy enters its most critical phase yet.