British government loses key vote
● Legal row holds up UK debate on contentious Brexit deal as make-or-break poll looms
The British government suffered a major blow on Tuesday when it lost a parliamentary vote on legal advice it received on the Brexit deal agreed with EU leaders last month.
A motion by the main opposition Labour Party to find the government in contempt of parliament for failing to publish the advice was passed by 311 MPs in favour to 293 against.
The government reacted to the defeat by saying it would publish the “final and full” advice on Wednesday.
Opponents believe the advice will reveal attorney-general Geoffrey Cox’s misgivings about the Brexit agreement.
The parliamentary vote has delayed a speech by Prime Minister Theresa May at the start of five days of debate on the deal itself before a final vote on December 11, which the government is expected to lose.
May was still due to address parliament later.
Labour’s Brexit spokesperson, Keir Starmer, said: “This House has now spoken and it’s of huge constitutional and political significance.
“It is, I think, unprecedented for this House to find government ministers in contempt.”
Meanwhile, May was expected to insist in her speech that her deal was the only option for a smooth Brexit in March.
“This is the deal that delivers for the British people,” May was to tell MPs.
“The British people want us to get on with a deal that honours the referendum and allows us to come together again as a country, whichever way we voted.”
The row over the legal advice is a reminder of how little control May’s fragile minority government has over MPs ahead of next week’s crucial vote.
May has warned that rejecting her deal could see Britain leaving the EU with no agreement – risking a major recession – or no Brexit at all.
Pro-European MPs pressing for a second referendum with the right to stay in the EU received a boost on Tuesday from an opinion issued by a legal adviser to the European Court of Justice.
Advocate-general Campos Sanchez-Bordona stated that Britain could, if it wanted to, stop Brexit without the agreement of other EU countries.
“That possibility continues to exist until the withdrawal agreement is formally concluded,” he said.
Alyn Smith, an MP from the Scottish National Party who was among those who brought the case, said: “We now have a roadmap out of the Brexit shambles.”
The vote next week has huge implications for Britain’s future and that of May herself.
The left-wing Labour party, which rejects the deal and has raised the possibility of a second referendum, says it would likely trigger a confidence vote to bring down her government if May loses.
May, who has been constantly challenged by hardline eurosceptics in her own Conservative Party, could also face an internal leadership contest.
The 2016 referendum, in which 52% of Britons chose to leave the EU, was deeply divisive and there remain strong feelings on both sides.
Lawmakers are just as divided. Although a large majority voted to start the Brexit process, they cannot agree on how it should end.
Hardline Conservative Brexiteers say May’s compromise deal does not represent enough of a break with Brussels.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Northern Ireland party propping up May’s government, also objects to special provisions for the province.
Many of May’s critics want her to go back and renegotiate – some suggest she could do so immediately.
Two days after the Brexit vote, she is due in Brussels for an EU summit.
On Monday, pro-European MPs delivered petitions to Downing Street signed by one million people calling for a second vote to resolve the issue.
“It is the only thing you can really do if parliament is in gridlock,” former Conservative minister Justine Greening said.
The EU Withdrawal Agreement covers Britain’s financial settlement, estimated at £39bn (R684bn), the rights of EU expatriates and plans for a postBrexit transition period lasting to December 2020. –
The vote next week has huge implications for Britain’s future