The government has made no new concessions to Labour MPs by signing up to an opposition motion to produce a “plan” for Brexit, David Davis has said.
The Brexit secretary, responding to his Labour shadow, Keir Starmer, in a Labour debate on Wednesday, said the motion went no further than his existing commitments to keep MPs apprised of the government’s stance, “provided it does not undermine the government’s negotiating strategy”.
With a number of Conservative backbenchers threatening to rebel, Theresa May on Tuesday decided to accept a Labour motion calling for the government to reveal its plan for Brexit before article 50 is triggered.
But in turn, the government insisted on an amendment that would ask MPs to agree to the government’s self-imposed deadline of the end of March next year for kicking off the formal process for leaving the EU.
Davis said: “Dance on a pin as the shadow spokesman may, that’s what they’re signing up to – the government will invoke article 50 by 31 March 2017.” He added that it had always been his approach to outline the government’s strategy to MPs – so long as it did not undermine the government’s negotiating strategy.
Starmer welcomed the government’s concession as a climbdown on Tuesday; but some Labour backbenchers have expressed concern that in voting for the amended motion, Starmer and his team will be giving away a key source of leverage.
Starmer called the government’s decision “a victory for common sense”, insisting, “an 11th-hour concession is an 11th-hour concession. Nobody is going to fall for that.”
He said the motion was important because it would, “put grip into a process that would otherwise have none”. But Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas claimed Starmer had “fallen into a Tory trap” by accepting the amendment.
Davis said the government’s amendment had “laid down an important challenge” to opposition MPs who said they supported the verdict in the referendum but were seeking to “thwart” Brexit.
“We will see today if they’re willing to back the government in getting on with implementing the decision made by the voters of the United Kingdom,” Davis said.
Starmer had opened the debate, by stressing that despite signing up to the amendment, Labour reserved the right to amend any government legislation triggering article 50 – the formal process to leave the European Union.
He pressed for more detail from Davis on what the government hoped to achieve from the negotiations, insisting there was “no mandate for hard Brexit; there is no consensus for hard Brexit”.
Starmer also criticised what he called “unhelpful” comments by the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, including on the UK’s status as a market for prosecco, which he said had been poorly received by Britain’s EU partners.
“They want a professional, constructive set of negotiations, and some of the comments that are being made about them and their purposes are not helpful.”
Davis replied: “I don’t know what hard Brexit means,” adding, “the mandate was to leave the European Union”.
