At last...Britain’s green light for smooth Brexit
BRITAIN is on course for a smooth Brexit next week after Boris Johnson’s Brussels deal was finally approved by Parliament last night.
After years of Westminster wrangling, the Prime Minister’s EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill is expected to be enshrined in law by gaining the Royal Assent today.
MPs yesterday rejected five lastditch amendments to the legislation made by the House of Lords.
And later peers shied away from a constitutional clash by accepting the verdict of the Commons and dropping the amendments.
Their climbdown meant the PM’s deal with Brussels was formally ratified and the UK’s departure from the EU at 11pm on January 31 is set to become law.
Hailing the end of the long Westminster war over Brexit, Mr Johnson said: “Parliament has passed the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, meaning we will leave the EU on 31 January and move forwards as one United Kingdom.
“At times it felt like we would never cross the Brexit finish line, but we’ve done it.
“Now we can put the rancour and division of the past three years behind us and focus on delivering a bright, exciting future – with better hospitals and schools, safer streets and opportunity spread to every corner of our country.”
Mr Johnson is expected to finalise the ratification process with EU chiefs before personally signing the historic Withdrawal Agreement.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Charles Michel are
to sign the deal in Brussels tomorrow, while the PM will add his signature in the coming days.
The European Parliament is set to rubber stamp the deal next Wednesday.
Once the legal process has been completed, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and EU chiefs will sign an “instrument of ratification” that will be deposited in Brussels to turn the deal into international law in time for the UK’s departure.
A No 10 source said: “The British
people have waited more than three years to get Brexit done.
“Passing the Withdrawal Agreement allows us to do this in an orderly way on January 31 and the whole UK to move forward to a partnership with the EU based on an ambitious free trade agreement with no alignment.”
Peace was declared in the long parliamentary war over Brexit at 6.20pm when the Lords backed a series of motions, accepting the Commons decision earlier yesterexpected
day to reject their amendments to the EUWithdrawal Bill.
Silence greeted a call for those who were “not content” with the motions to make their opposition heard. The decision spared Parliament a bout of “ping pong” with the legislation being shuttled back and forth.
Speaking in the upper chamber, Brexit minister Lord Callanan said: “We are at the end of what seems like a very long road.”
Earlier MPs had rejected five
changes made by the Lords to the legislation, including a clause proposed by the Labour peer Lord Dubs providing extra guarantees for the protection of child refugees.
Peers had also defeated the Government on the rights of EU workers legally residing in the UK to have physical proof of their right to remain and the power of courts to depart from European Court of Justice rulings.
They also backed a plan underlining a commitment that Parliament “will not normally” legislate for devolved matters without the consent of the legislature affected.
All five amendments were comfortably reversed by MPs, with majorities ranging from 86 to 103.
During the debate, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said the Government could not accept the Lords amendment on citizens’ rights as it would make the EU Settlement Scheme “null and void”.