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Brexit could be delayed if Theresa May gives MPs pre-Article 50 vote, Nick Clegg says | Brexit could be delayed if Theresa May gives MPs pre-Article 50 vote, Nick Clegg says |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Theresa May would have to delay Brexit if she gives MPs a vote on her negotiating strategy before triggering the formal process to leave the European Union and they reject it, Nick Clegg has admitted. | Theresa May would have to delay Brexit if she gives MPs a vote on her negotiating strategy before triggering the formal process to leave the European Union and they reject it, Nick Clegg has admitted. |
The former deputy prime minister is leading a cross-party effort to force the Prime Minister to set out her Brexit plan – including whether she wants the UK to remain in the single market – and then give MPs a vote on it. | |
Cabinet minister Priti Patel reasserted the Government’s position that it will not offer a “running commentary” and likened the negotiations to playing poker, insisting Britain cannot reveal its hand before Article 50 to begin the process of leaving is invoked. | |
She also warned against “subverting the democratic will” of the public and insisted there will be several votes on the “Great Repeal Bill”. | |
The bill transposes EU law onto the domestic statute book but will not come before the Commons until after Article 50 is triggered. | |
Mr Clegg instead wants ministers to spell out in a White Paper-style document whether it sees the UK in or out of the European single market before beginning negotiations. | Mr Clegg instead wants ministers to spell out in a White Paper-style document whether it sees the UK in or out of the European single market before beginning negotiations. |
He denied it is an attempt to delay to the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, telling BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “It's not at all. | |
“It is in an attempt to ensure that as the Government pursues its mandate of pulling us out of the EU they do so in a workable way, a legal way and crucially in a way that doesn’t throw the single market baby out with the EU bath water.” | |
He added: “I strongly suspect if the Government comes with a sensible coherent plan for Brexit they will win a majority across the sides of the House of Commons.” | |
However, he admitted that if MPs voted against the Government's Brexit plans, the Prime Minister would be forced to pause going ahead with the official withdrawal process. | However, he admitted that if MPs voted against the Government's Brexit plans, the Prime Minister would be forced to pause going ahead with the official withdrawal process. |
“Yes, and by the way that would be a very good thing because I think Theresa May has made already a fundamental tactical error by saying, just to throw red meat to her backbenches, that she's going to trigger Article 50 in March of next year; she's already, in doing so, lost about a quarter of her negotiating timetable,” he said. | |
“As anybody in Europe will tell you, nothing is going to meaningfully happen until the end of next year until after the German election.” | |
He claimed MPs who campaigned to leave the UK are “in a state of Brenial, they are Breniers because they are denying the mendacity of their original campaign”. | |
If Mr Clegg and his allies, which include former Labour leader Ed Miliband, shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer, and Tories Nick Herbert and Stephen Phillips, get their wish of a fresh Commons debate on whether there should be a pre-Article 50 vote, it could prove awkward for Ms May. | |
The PM was forced last week to allow disgruntled Tories to back a Labour motion calling for “proper scrutiny” of her strategy amid the threat of a backbench rebellion. | |
The debate that followed saw several Tory former ministers express concerns about a potential hard Brexit outside the single market. | |
The Government appears to be favouring such an approach because it insists on full control over immigration, seen as incompatible with membership of the free trade zone. | The Government appears to be favouring such an approach because it insists on full control over immigration, seen as incompatible with membership of the free trade zone. |
But Ms Patel said she could not reveal more detail about the plan. | But Ms Patel said she could not reveal more detail about the plan. |
“If I were to sit down and play poker with you this morning, I’m not going to show you my cards before we even start playing the game,” she told Mr Marr. | |
She stressed that debates were happening every day in the Commons and the Government would be held to account by a new Brexit select committee. | She stressed that debates were happening every day in the Commons and the Government would be held to account by a new Brexit select committee. |
“We look at everything that happens in Parliament and obviously the debates that are taking place now and the debates that people are alluding to as well,” Ms Patel said. | |
“We will work with all colleagues. | |
“This isn't about a them or us mentality whatsoever; we are listening to colleagues, respectfully.” | |
Press Association | Press Association |
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