Boris Johnson declared “the oven is on” today as he used his new Commons majority to ram his Brexit deal through the Commons in a landmark day.
The Prime Minister told MPs it was time for them to “discard the old labels of Leave and Remain” and pass the legislation. “The oven is on, so to speak,” he said in the Commons. “It is set at Gas Mark 4 and we can have it by lunchtime.”
The Government faced a furious row with MPs over its decision to strip out concessions from the Bill, including a pledge to take in child refugees.
But ebullient Mr Johnson insisted: “This is the time when we move on and discard the old labels of Leave and Remain. The very words seem tired to me as I speak, as defunct as Montagues and Capulets at the end of the play.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the House: “Shame on this Government for abandoning children in this way.” He added: “I want to make it absolutely clear how appalled I am to see the Government remove the protections in this Bill for unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
“Now this Government in its first week in office has ripped up those hard-won commitments.”
Mr Corbyn appeared to concede that the election had been decisive, saying: “We recognise the clear message from the British public last week and understand their determination to end the never-ending cycle of Brexit debate and get back to solving the day-to-day issues and challenges they face in their lives.
“We must listen and understand we cannot go on forever debating what happened in 2016. We have to respect that decision and move on.”
An amendment was put down by Scottish Nationalists demanding a referendum, saying 74 per cent of voters in Scotland supported parties that proposed either staying in the EU or a second referendum. The DUP put down one opposing the Bill, saying it did not respect the Good Friday Agreement. Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said the stripping out of concessions was “no more than a return to normality”.
Meanwhile, European Parliament vice-president Pedro Silva Pereira said he expected the deal to be ratified by the EU by January 29, clearing the way for Brexit Day to be January 31 as planned.
“We’ve always respected the choice of the British people, but it is true that it was a very long process,” he said. He suggested the Prime Minister will have to give concessions to the EU if he wants a trade deal by December 2020, warning: “We have a very short time-frame available. Eleven months to negotiate such a complex trade agreement is unprecedented.”
He added: “The key issue will be what kind of regulatory dis-alignment we will have. The political declaration we’ve agreed with the UK envisaged a very ambitious trading relationship with zero tariffs, zero quotas. But this can only be achieved if we ensure some regulatory alignment.”
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said the Tories had torn up protections for workers’ rights and child refugees. Acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said that the withdrawal deal revealed “what an unbridled Boris Johnson will do with the country.”
