Following on from Wednesday's parliamentary votes on the subject of no-deal, I think it is appropriate for me to clarify the content and the subsequent developments stemming from Thursday's votes in the House of Commons. I will set out what each amendment proposed, how I voted in each and what the eventual result of the vote was. I will then focus on the main Government motion from last night, which related to the pursuit of an agreement with the EU for an extension to Article 50.
Amendment H
The first vote was an amendment tabled by Dr Sarah Wollaston MP. The objective of this amendment was to compel the Prime Minister to 'request an extension to the Article 50 period at the European Council in March 2019 sufficient for the purposes of legislating for and conducting a public vote in which the people of the United Kingdom may give their consent for either leaving the European Union on terms to be determined by Parliament or retaining the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.' In essence, this amendment sought to instruct the Prime Minister to hold a Second Referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. I do not like the idea of a Second Referendum. With both camps still exaggerating their claims on what post-Brexit will look like, I think it is naïve to expect a referndum to be conducted fairly and openly. This is not the time to be looking at one. I voted against the amendment. The amendment was hugely defeated 335 – 84.
Amendment I
The second vote last night related to a cross-party amendment supported by Hilary Benn MP, Yvette Cooper MP, as well as Sir Oliver Letwin MP and Dominic Grieve MP. This amendment attempted to allow MPs to take control of the Brexit process from the Government, enabling them to force a series of indicative votes to establish MPs preferred option for Brexit. In my view, it is for Government to negotiate our terms of withdrawal from the European Union. I do not support ceding executive decision-making powers to the opposition and I therefore voted against the amendment. The amendment was defeated 314 – 312.
Amendment E
The third vote, an amendment tabled by the Labour frontbench, in the name of Jeremy Corbyn MP, sought to reject the Prime Minister's Deal, reject no deal, as well as seeking an extension of Article 50 and allowing for 'Parliamentary time' in the House of Commons, to find a majority for a different approach. I voted against this amendment. The amendment was defeated 318– 302.
Main Government Motion
After none of the preceding amendments were passed, the motion remained unaltered. The final question which MPs were called to vote upon concerned the intention to extend Article 50 until 30th June 2019, for the purpose of passing the necessary EU exit legislation, if the Withdrawal Agreement was signed. Such an extension would have to be agreed to by the EU. This was a technical motion. However, under current legislation if the Withdrawal Agreement is not agreed to the legislative default position is that we leave on 29 March. I voted for the motion. The motion was passed 412 – 202.
