UK parliament passes Brexit bill.
By BENJAMIN FOX
The
UK's bill to start the process of overturning EU law passed its first
parliamentary test on Monday (11 September), but Conservative back-bench MPs
warned that controversial plans for the government to overturn EU laws by
executive order would have to be scrapped.
The
EU Withdrawal Bill passed its second reading late on Monday night by 326 to 290,
after nine hours of debate and contributions by 107 MPs.
The
bill unpicks the 1972 European Communities Act, which took the UK into the then
European Economic Community. It also converts all existing EU laws into UK
law.
The
government majority was no surprise - veteran pro-European Ken Clarke was the
only Tory not to vote with the government - but the debate indicated that
ministers will have to make concessions in the coming weeks to head off
rebellions by Conservative MPs.
Twenty-one
Labour MPs defied their party whip to either abstain or vote with the government
in favour of the bill. Most of the 14 Labour MPs to abstain backed the Remain
campaign in the 2016 referendum but represent northern constituencies with large
Leave majorities.
The
Labour rebels broke from their party's new "soft Brexit" position, which seeks
to keep Britain within both the single market and customs union during any
post-2019 transitional period.
Rebellions
against the Conservative government are more likely following the committee
stage of the bill when hundreds of amendments will be debated. MPs formed a
lengthy queue to table amendments immediately after the vote.
Most
likely to be revised are the government's plans to use so-called Henry VIII
clauses - which date back to the executive orders used by the Tudor monarch - to
table between 800 and 1,000 pieces of secondary law, on top of the over 20,000
EU regulations, directives and UK laws currently in place.
In
a bid to head off concerns led by former attorney general Dominic Grieve and
former constitutional affairs minister John Penrose, about legislating on Brexit
by executive order, the government is likely to agree on a system that would
establish an external expert committee to advise the government on new laws that
would change or remove the existing EU rules.
Opening
the debate, Brexit secretary David Davis told MPs that the bill would ensure
that the UK would leave the EU "safe in the knowledge that we are ready for day
one of exit", adding that "a vote against this bill is a vote for a chaotic exit
from the European Union."
For
his part, Labour's Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, insisted that the bill
contained so many "fundamental flaws" that it was unlikely to become "fit for
purpose".
The
passing of the Withdrawal Bill draws parallels to the scrutiny of the Maastricht
treaty in 1993 which nearly toppled John Major's government.
According
to the draft programme, the EU Withdrawal Bill will be debated for eight days -
spread between October and November - compared to the 22 days for Maastricht.
However, justice secretary David Lidington hinted that the time could be
extended and that the government would "consider that very seriously and
carefully indeed".
Meanwhile,
the UK's trades union congress kicked off the four week party conference season
on Monday (11 September) by agreeing that the UK should permanently remain in
the single market.
Outside
parliament, a group of Remain supporters are maintaining a vigil in front of
parliament and Downing Street.
"This
is not finished," one of them told EUobserver.
(Losers!)