MPsMP BACK EU TRADE DEAL
BORIS Johnson’s EU trade deal cleared the House of Commons, as the Government seeks to rush approval through Parliament in a single day.
After little over four hours’ debate, MPs voted by 521 to 73 to give the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill, ratifying the deal finally agreed on Christmas Eve, a third reading.
Only four Welsh Labour MPs were among the 36 who defied Keir Starmer and refused to back the legislation to ratify Boris Johnson’s trade deal – Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower), Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West), Geraint Davies (Swansea West) and Beth Winter (Cynon Valley).
Ms Antoniazzi joined fellow junior shadow minister Helen Hayes in resigning their posts on the Labour front bench as they could not support the agreement.
Mr Brennan was the first Labour backbencher to signal during the debate their intention to rebel, explaining he would not be supporting the deal as it is “a failure”.
He said: “This is a thin deal, it is a failure even on the Government’s own terms, in short it is a bad deal and I won’t be voting for it.”
The Bill then went to the House of Lords last night, where it was widely expected to be passed before going to the Queen for royal assent.
That paves the way for the deal to take effect at 11pm today when the current Brexit transition period, during which the UK has continued to follow EU rules, ends.
Opening the debate in the Commons, the Prime Minister said the deal would enable the UK to trade and co-operate with the EU on the “closest possible terms” while taking “sovereign control of our laws and our national destiny”.
He said he hoped it would end the “old, desiccated, tired, super-masticated arguments” which have dogged the country for years and enable it to move forwards to a “new and great future”.
“It embodies our vision shared with our European neighbours of a new relationship between Britain and the EU as sovereign equals joined by friendship, commerce, history interests and values while respecting one another’s freedom of action,” he said.
“We are going to open a new chapter in our national story, striking free trade deals around the world and reasserting global Britain as a liberal, outward-looking force for good.”
Labour backed the deal, despite misgivings from some pro-European MPs who said they would be abstaining or voting against.
However, party leader Sir Keir Starmer said that while the agreement is “thin” with “many flaws”, the alternative is to leave the EU single market and customs union with no agreement, pushing up prices and driving businesses to the wall.
“There’s only one choice today, which is to vote for implementing this deal or to vote for no-deal. Those that vote ‘no’ are voting for no-deal,” he said.
“This is the nub of it: those voting ‘no’ today want ‘yes’. They want others to save them from their own vote.
“Voting ‘no’, wanting ‘yes’, that’s the truth of the situation and that’s why my party has taken a different path.”
However, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, condemned the deal as “an act of economic vandalism” and attacked Labour for failing to oppose it.
“I am sad to say that the official opposition has been missing in action. I can understand that this might be politically pragmatic for Labour but it definitely isn’t politically principled,” he said.
One Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, defied the whips to vote against the agreement while another 36 abstained.
All the other opposition parties opposed the agreement – including the DUP, which backed Brexit but objects to provisions which mean Northern Ireland will still be subject to some EU rules.
But Tory Eurosceptics were jubilant, declaring that the “battle for Brexit” had finally been won.
Veteran Sir Bill Cash said: “Like Alexander the Great, Boris has cut the Gordian Knot.”
Mark Francois, one of the selfstyled Spartans who held out against Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement, said they could now “lower our spears”.
Earlier in the day, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel formally signed the agreement.
Following the brief ceremony in Brussels, the documents were then flown to London by the RAF where Mr Johnson put his name to it.
Mr Michel said: “The agreement that we signed today is the result of months of intense negotiations in which the European Union has displayed an unprecedented level of unity. It is a fair and balanced agreement that fully protects the fundamental interests of the European Union and creates stability and predictability for citizens and companies.”
At Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament voted by 92 to 30 to deny the deal legislative consent.
THE speed with which the Bill relating to the Brexit deal has been hurried through Parliament is an affront to democracy.
As First Minister Mark Drakeford has pointed out, there is a contrast between yesterday’s farce and the months-long scrutiny allowed by Margaret Thatcher when a major piece of Europe-related legislation was put forward during her premiership.
We elect MPs not simply to be lobby fodder for their party, but to evaluate the merits of proposals laid before them. Line-by-line scrutiny of proposed legislation is appropriate in any circumstances, but crucial when considering a matter as important as the Brexit deal and the Bill associated with it.
None of the MPs can possibly have read Boris Johnson’s Bill with the degree of critical attention it demands.
The Bill – and the deal to which it is linked – will result in hugely significant changes that will affect us all. By rushing it through with such indecent haste, the parliamentary process has been undermined.
The Conservative Government at Westminster has had four and a half years since the June 2016 referendum to negotiate a deal, but only managed to secure one on Christmas Eve after backing down in a number of crucial areas.
Such brinkmanship did not, then, bring the UK any advantages.
The suspicion must be that Mr Johnson wanted to avoid scrutiny of a deal that is fundamentally flawed.
We know that businesses involved in importing and exporting goods have grave reservations about the extra bureaucracy that will be imposed on them from tomorrow, and that those involved in the provision of financial services remain in the dark about the degree to which they will be able to do business in EU countries.
Equally, there is considerable unease about the way in which participation in the Erasmus international student programme has been ended for young people living in Wales, England and Scotland.
The UK Government has been suggesting, without any evidence, that it was only students from wealthy backgrounds who benefited from Erasmus.
All these issues and more should have been thoroughly debated in both Houses of Parliament before approval was given to the Bill.
The current Prime Minister’s record on respect for parliamentary scrutiny was already poor, given his unlawful proroguing of Parliament in 2019. His latest antics do not bode well for a post-Brexit era in which “taking back control” is the mantra.