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The Government has confirmed that it will introduce its Brexit bill to the commons today. The Brexit secretary, Steve Barclay, said: “MPs and Peers will today have in front of them a bill that will get Brexit done by October 31, protect jobs and the integrity of the UK, and enable us to move onto the people’s priorities like health, education and crime.”
However, the anti-Brexit opposition is intending to try to wreck the deal by proposing dozens of amendments. The ERG group (the Brexit wing of the Tory Party) says they will vote for the deal, unless it is 'wrecked by opponents,' in which case they would pull their support for the final bill.
Members of the European Research Group (ERG), the Brexiteer wing of the Tory party, may withhold their support for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal if it is “wrecked by opponents”, the ERG chairman has warned.
Steve Baker told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme he would reconsider her support for the deal, if it is amended to include a customs union arrangement. He said: "The advice I gave to my Eurosceptic colleagues is we should, number one, back the deal. Number two, vote for the legislation all the way through unless, it has to be said, it was wrecked by opponents, in which case we would have to take a view."
Apparently the Johnson government is ahead of them on this point, as they have announced that they will pull the vote if Speaker of Parliament and chief leader of the anti-Brexit contignent John Bercow selects any amendments to be added to this vote. Clearly, PM Johnson is not in the mood to monkey around with these people any further, which is wise and good.
Downing Street have confirmed that if Speaker John Bercow selected any amendments to the meaningful vote today the Government will immediately pull the motion. They have also hinted they will pull the whole Withdrawal Agreement Bill if MPs amend it to add a Customs Union or second referendum clause.
However, if it is voted on without modification, it appears that there is a pretty good chance that it has the support to pass, as Foreign secretary Dominick Raab claims that and also Michael Gove have stated publicly that they believe that the votes are there to pass this deal.
However, all this being said, it is not impossible that Speaker Bercow disallows any vote on this deal on technical grounds. That will be a very bad look for him and the rest of his crew, if that happens.
BORIS Johnson believes he has the numbers to pass a Brexit vote today but "poor man's Cromwell" John Bercow may block it, it emerged this morning. The Remainer Speaker will decide later whether to let the PM hold a vote on his deal, leaving Brexit hanging in the balance. But Mr Bercow has warned that he could oppose it, arguing that the deal has already been debated in the Commons. On Saturday the Speaker warned that a supposed re-run of the vote would be "irregular".
So the next few hours should be quite interesting.
Speaker of Parliament John Bercow has apparently decided that the Withdrawal deal agreed to between the UK and the EU will not be voted on by the UK Parliament.
Speaker of Parliament John Bercow has apparently decided that the Withdrawal deal agreed to between the UK and the EU will not be voted on by the UK Parliament.
So now what? Does this mean that a No-Deal Brexit on October 31st is the only remaining position?
Leaving on October 31, whether with or without a deal, is the default position in UK and EU law. So, something would have to change for the UK to not leave on October 31.
That being said, a photocopy of unsigned letter, not on letterhead, was submitted to the EU requesting another extension, supposedly to January 31, 2020 (about 90 days), or for whatever period of time the EU decides to offer. The EU is apparently accepting this letter as a legitimate request for an extension, although I am reasonably certain that it would not be regarded as such for virtually any other legal purpose.
So apparently the EU will offer an extension. There has been talk of offering an extension either for a month or until next June. These people are doing everything within their power try to overturn the result of the 2016 Brexit Referendum.
However, the UK PM is not without power in all of this. Boris Johnson also sent a letter to the EU which was on letterhead and which he did sign indicating that no extension should be granted. Jouhnson is still a member of the EU Counsel and does have power in that role. Any extension would require a unaninous vote to be approved.
It is not clear what will happen over the next few days leading up to October 31. But Johnson's Tory party is apparently leading in the polls by about 15 points and a general election surely has to be coming soon, possibly before the end of the year. In September, there was wide agreement that once an extension was agreed to, everyone would then back a general election. But with the opposition to Brexit poised to apparently lose, that would enable Johnson to have his way with this at that point. So it may be that they are not so keen on a general election after all.
OK, this is a little tricky. The Leftwin amendment passed last Saturday was intended to sabotage the Withdrawal Agreement deal by requiring all of the supporting legislation passes first. They thought that should be enough to kill it, at least for the time being.
Not so fast.
Leader of Commons Jacob Rees Mogg has tabled the legislation - much to many people's surprise - and announced a plan to try to pass it within the next three days. That legislation, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), is not the same as the 'Meaningful vote' motion that offered on Saturday. As you can see, it even has it's own acronym, which is handy.
The government wanted to hold a "yes" or "no" vote - a so-called "meaningful vote" - on its deal on Saturday, but MPs instead chose to back an amendment tabled by former Tory Sir Oliver Letwin, which said that could not happen until all necessary Brexit legislation was passed.
That legislation, called the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), has been introduced and will then have to go through full parliamentary scrutiny in both the Commons and the Lords - something which usually takes weeks rather than days. But Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg announced plans to complete the Commons stages by the end of Thursday. He said the House would not sit on Friday.
The BBC's political editor said the government hoped to push the WAB through by getting MPs to sit until midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday - an aggressive timetable they may well reject. MPs will vote on a so-called programme motion - which effectively approves or rejects that timetable - on Tuesday.
So, get your seatbelts on, fellas. This ship is still motoring ahead.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, the prime minister attempted to stop MPs voting down his timetable for the legislation that gives them only three-days to scrutinise the bill. He said any vote against his programme motion would delay Brexit for three months as the EU was considering an extension until the end of January that was requested under the Benn act.
“I will in no way allow months more of this. If parliament refuses to allow Brexit to happen and instead gets its way and decides to delay everything until January or possibly longer, in no circumstances can the government continue with this. And with great regret, I must say the bill will have to be pulled and we will have to go forward to a general election,” he said.
....
The Downing Street source said: “If parliament votes again for delay by voting down the programme motion, and the EU offers delay until 31 January – then we will pull the bill, there will be no further business for parliament and we’ll move to an election before Christmas.”
The UK Parliament has just passed the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) legislation by a vote of 329-299. The Withdrawal Agreement Legislation is passed.
But hold on to your hats. Now the program motion also has to be passed for this to work, which relates to the timetable.
The UK Parliament has rejected the program motion by a vote of 308-322. So the shenanigans continue.
PM Johnson has "Paused" the legislation as a result. It is not altogether clear to me what the implications of this move are within the UK Parliamentary system.
Last edited by Spartacus713; 10-22-2019 at 12:42 PM..
The UK Parliament has just passed the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) legislation by a vote of 329-299. The Withdrawal Agreement Legislation is passed.
But hold on to your hats. Now the program motion also has to be passed for this to work, which relates to the timetable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spartacus713
The UK Parliament has rejected the program motion by a vote of 308-322. So the shenanigans continue.
PM Johnson has "Paused" the legislation as a result. It is not altogether clear to me what the implications of this move are within the UK Parliamentary system.
Johnson's Brexit deal pasing is a victory in itself.
However the timetable bill not passing will present a few problems.
The Government may wait to see what they can negotiate with the EU, however in terms of a short extension of a few weeks, it's not really going to be a problem. In fact the EU have some sympathy for Johnson, and ,acron and others have praised him.
A longer extension would mean Johnson will call a General Election, something which he would have done after securing Brexit anyway.
Johnson is ahead in the polls, and people are gunning for Corbyn's Labour which has defied democracy and a general election and has refused to answer to the British people.
One thing is now clear though and that is Brexit is now most certainly going to happen.
Johnson's Brexit deal pasing is a victory in itself.
However the timetable bill not passing will present a few problems.
The Government may wait to see what they can negotiate with the EU, however in terms of a short extension of a few weeks, it's not really going to be a problem. In fact the EU have some sympathy for Johnson, and ,acron and others have praised him.
A longer extension would mean Johnson will call a General Election, something which he would have done after securing Brexit anyway.
Johnson is ahead in the polls, and people are gunning for Corbyn's Labour which has defied democracy and a general election and has refused to answer to the British people.
One thing is now clear though and that is Brexit is now most certainly going to happen.
That would be a great outcome here.
When the EU sees that WAB has actually passed the UK Parliament, hopefully without the bunch of them having a collective coronary, it would be great if they would propose a 30 day extension. That would suggest that we might actually be nearing the end of this thing. Then they Parliament could send this bill through committee in an orderly manner.
At this moment, I am beginning to suspect that Johnson wants the EU to offer a very short extension before he returns with a proposal for a longer program motion, that could be accomplished within that period (perhaps 30 days).
Of course the problem with that is that the EU does not want Brexit and neither do many members of the UK Parliament. So while I hope these people will allow this to happen, so far they have not been very cooperative.
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