Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg has urged MPs to approve the government’s fast-tracked timetable for its Brexit bill so the UK can leave the EU by 31 October.
The MP for North East Somerset said yesterday that “people who do not vote for the programme motion will not be voting for Brexit on October 31”.
The government is today expected to ask MPs to vote on the timetable, which would see the withdrawal agreement bill - the legislation needed to enact Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal - pass through the Commons by Thursday. It was published late on Monday evening.
The short amount of time, which could result in late-night debates, led some MPs to complain that they were not being given enough time to scrutinise the 100-page bill.
Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire tweeted:
And Darren Jones, the MP for Bristol North West, tweeted:
The government wants to give the WAB its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday - the first opportunity MPs have to debate the principles of the bill - before moving it on to the committee stage, where it is given a more detailed examination.
The bill would then go on to the report stage, in which MPs are expected to table amendments to the bill, and third reading on Thursday, before being sent to the House of Lords.
The government has indicated it may pull the bill if it is amended too heavily - for example with a proposal for a customs union or second referendum.
The government is attempting to push through the WAB quickly after MPs withheld their approval for the Prime Minister’s deal on Saturday, when they were asked to vote for it.
MPs supported an amendment by former Tory minister Sir Oliver Letwin that put off their decision until all the legislation needed to pass the WAB had been passed.
Supporters argue that this was to stop the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal regardless of whether they had lent their support to the deal.
The effect of the Letwin vote - which the government lost by 322 votes to 306 - was to force the Prime Minister to seek an extension to the Brexit deadline beyond 31 October as required by the Benn Act, the law passed by MPs that said he must ask for an extension if no deal was agreed by parliament by Saturday 19 October.
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