Article 50 bill clears parliament as government wins final two Lords votes with 100-plus majorities

[LeftishBrit]

Theresa May is set to receive the legal authority to trigger article 50 within hours or days after the European Union (notification of withdrawal) bill cleared its final vote in parliament. It will become law when it gets the royal assent, which will happen very soon. At one stage there was speculation that May would announce the triggering of article 50 in the Commons tomorrow, but government sources are now claiming that that was never the intention and hinting that she will wait until the end of the month. There has been speculation that Nicola Sturgeon’s surprise decision to announce her call for a second referendum today, instead of at the SNP conference at the weekend as had been expected, has prompted a last-minute delay.
MPs and peers have failed to secure any amendments to the 137-word bill. Peers passed two amendments, obliging the government to guarantee the rights of EU nationals living in the UK and giving parliament a veto over the outcome of the Brexit talks, but this afternoon MPs voted to remove them both and then the House of Lords backed down, largely because Labour peers decided to abstain. When Gina Miller won her supreme court case saying parliament would have to approve the triggering of article 50, she said it would mean that MPs would have “the opportunity to bring their invaluable experience and expertise to bear in helping the government select the best course in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations”. But in fact MPs and peers obtained no concessions during the 70-plus hours when the bill was debated in parliament. May did promise MPs and peers a vote on the final Brexit deal, but that was in the Lancaster House speech, before the supreme court ruling, and ministers say the vote they will get at the end of the process will just be a “take it or leave it” one. She also announced, on the day after the supreme court judgment, that she would publish a white paper on Brexit. But that was before parliament started debating the bill. Once those debates started, ministers refused all demands for concessions. Given the fact May only has a working majority of 17, and that several dozen Tory MPs have very strong reservations about her “hard” Brexit approach, getting the bill through the Commons without a defeat represents a considerable triumph for the whips.

Jeremy Corbyn has claimed that Labour will “at every stage ... challenge the government’s plans for a bargain basement Brexit” despite his party being condemned by the Lib Dems for backing down when peers voted tonight on the two amendments to the bill. At one stage Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, promised “hand-to-hand combat” from Labour in the Lords on this. But tonight in the Lords Labour argued that it was pointless voting to insert the amendments into the bill for a second time because there was no prospect at all of the government agreeing to accept them in the Commons. Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, accused Labour of giving “a blank cheque to the Conservative Brexit government”. Labour accused the Lib Dems of pressing their amendments when they had no hope of winning purely as a new member recruitment exercise. (See 9.20am.)


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/mar/13/article-50-commons-lords-brexit-sturgeon-speech-corbyn-clarifies-his-position-on-second-scottish-independence-referendum-saying-hes-opposed-politics-live

[LeftishBrit]

1. That's our system; you have to vote with your party leaders like cloned sheep, even if you know it's

going to be a disaster.

Oh, well, bye bye United Kingdom, it was nice knowing you.