ON Tuesday, facing a rebellion from an estimated 40 pro-EU Tory MPs and likely defeat in the House of Commons, the government made an 11th hour concession and accepted the Labour motion which calls on it to publish a plan for Brexit before Article 50 is invoked.
The Labour motion read: ‘That this House recognises that leaving the EU is the defining issue facing the UK; notes the resolution on parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU agreed by the House on 12 October 2016; recognises that it is Parliament’s responsibility to properly scrutinise the government while respecting the decision of the British people to leave the European Union; confirms that there should be no disclosure of material that could be reasonably judged to damage the UK in any negotiations to depart from the European Union after Article 50 has been triggered; and calls on the Prime Minister to commit to publishing the government’s plan for leaving the EU before Article 50 is invoked.’
The Tory amendment read: At end add, ‘consistently with the principles agreed without division by this House on 12 October; recognises that this House should respect the wishes of the United Kingdom as expressed in the referendum on 23 June; and further calls on the Government to invoke Article 50 by 31 March 2017’.
Moving the motion in the House of Commons yesterday, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the government had now ‘caved in’. He said the government had refused ‘on every occasion’ to give more details, saying information about its negotiating stance was important because it ‘sets the scene’ for Brexit.
Starmer added looking forward to the battle ahead: ‘We need to remind ourselves that the government is arguing that this House should have no say on the question of invoking Article 50, that is the argument it is presenting in the Supreme Court. It wants to remove through that argument the prospect of a vote granted by the High Court a few weeks ago. That is the core of its argument and the purpose of its appeal, to remove that vote from us, that is what it is seeking to achieve. That would be to avoid scrutiny and avoid accountability. If the government succeeds in that appeal this motion will be very important because it puts grip into a process which would otherwise have none.’
Tory Brexit Secretary David Davis responded: ‘The simple fact is that the mandate (in June’s referendum) was to leave the European Union – full stop. We need to keep that in mind when we are going through that process.’
The Tory amendment, accepted by Labour, merely postpones the reckoning of accounts over Brexit, which will split both the ruling party and the opposition.
