Johnson plows on after speaker blocks Brexit deal vote
LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government on Monday plowed on with its plan to conclude Brexit by Oct. 31, despite being blocked by the parliamentary speaker from from holding a vote on its Brexit deal.
Jacob Rees-mogg, Johnson’s leader in the Commons, parliament’s elected main house, told lawmakers that the government plans to pass a withdrawal agreement bill by Thursday, with a key vote on the bill and any amendments on Tuesday.
Pete Wishart, the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader in the Commons, said the short time given to the bill was “totally unacceptable.”
“Three days to consider a bill. Somebody suggested it’s 100 pages. How on Earth are we going to have the chance to assess that properly?” Wishart said, adding that the government had provided “no economic impacts.”
The bill is designed to pave the way for the provisions of Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement, which has the status of a draft international treaty, into British law.
It covers most of the crucial legal, financial and bureaucratic details of Britain’s “divorce” from the EU, including sections on controversial post-brexit customs arrangements between Britain and Northern Ireland.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay confirmed on Monday that “exit summary declarations” would be needed for goods moving from Northern Ireland to Britain.
“How can any Conservative & Unionist MP argue this does not represent a border in the Irish Sea?!” tweeted Sammy Wilson, a lawmaker from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Wilson was using the Conservative party’s full name.
“It’s now clear that @ Borisjohnson is prepared to wreck the United Kingdom to get this EU treaty through. No wonder the DUP are unhappy,” Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage tweeted.
Several Conservative lawmakers earlier accused John Bercow, the Commons speaker, of bias after he said the government was trying to present a motion that is “in substance the same” as the one lawmakers considered on Saturday.
“My ruling is therefore that the matter will not be debated (again) today,” Bercow said.
Pro-brexit Conservative Bernard Jenkin was among several lawmakers who questioned Bercow’s impartiality, accusing him of bias against the government.
Jenkin told Bercow he would be part of a parliamentary committee examining “the role of the speaker.”
Bercow insisted he had made a “principled judgement” based on established parliamentary procedure.
Johnson had attempted to ignore the furor over his sending a controversial request to Brussels to delay Brexit, vowing to hold the vote on his deal on Monday despite lawmakers having backed an amendment to the deal on Saturday.
He sent an unsigned pro-forma letter later Saturday asking EU leaders to extend the Brexit deadline, accompanied by a signed letter explaining that he does not want a delay.