THE NEW Tory government with its majority of 80, plans to ask MPs to vote on PM Johnson’s Brexit bill as early as this Friday, Downing Street said yesterday.
The PM’s spokesman said the government planned to start the process in Parliament before Christmas and will do so ‘in discussion with the Speaker’.
The withdrawal agreement bill is the legislation that will enable Brexit to happen – the UK is due to leave the EU on 31 January.
It comes as the PM prepares to addressed his new MPs in Westminster.
Many of the 109 new Conservative MPs won in areas traditionally held by Labour in last Thursday’s election. Johnson is also to carry out a ‘mini cabinet reshuffle’.
He needs to fill posts made vacant by those who stood down ahead of the general election, including the Culture and Welsh Secretary posts.
The Queen will formally open Parliament on Thursday when she sets out the government’s legislative programme.
The prime minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: ‘We plan to start the process of the withdrawal agreement bill before Christmas and will do so in the proper constitutional way in discussion with the Speaker.’
Asked if the legislation would be identical to that introduced in the last Parliament, the spokesman said: ‘You will have to wait for it to be published but it will reflect the agreement that we made with the EU on our withdrawal.’
Johnson then has to negotiate a new trade agreement with the EU and have it ratified before the end of the post-Brexit transition period that ends on 31 December 2020. He has repeatedly said that the transition period will not be extended.
The Queen’s Speech is also expected to include legislation linked to pledges made during the election campaign – most notably a guarantee on NHS funding.
