The EU withdrawal bill passed its first Commons hurdle late on Monday night, with Theresa May hailing the vote as a “historic decision to back the will of the British people”.
With no Tory MPs rebelling and seven Labour MPs defying their own party whip to support the government, the result handed May an effective “Brexit majority” of 36.
Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the bill was a “naked power grab”, while the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake called it “a dark day for the mother of parliaments”.
MPs from across the house have put forward a series of amendments to the bill, with Conservative MP John Penrose writing for the Guardian about his proposed changes.
Below, we share a selection of readers’ views on the implications of the vote - and what happens next.
This is not ‘the will of the people’
I don’t trust the PM or ministers with these powers
I listened to the debate yesterday and admired the passion with which people on both sides of the argument held their views. The word I was waiting to hear was the word trust. I never heard a Tory and certainly not an opposition MP say that they would trust Davies and co to use their executive powers under the act fairly.
We do not trust our politicians except to act in their Party's interest. The seven who crossed the floor to vote with the Government were the only exceptions.
The game of politics does not cease if one side does not wish to play. The Tories will seize whatever advantage they can from a divided Labour Party.
The Bill is an appalling one as Grieve has stated but I can't imagine why a joint committee of all the parties could not decide on a way of improving it. May is, as usual, arrogant to a point of stupidity.
May is simply avoiding a massive legal logjam
As I understand it, all May is doing with the 'Henry VIII' powers is transposing existing EU legislation into domestic law, to avoid a massive legal logjam on the day we leave the EU. The sheer number of laws involved could not all be dealt with on a one-by-one basis in the time involved. I don't think she's planning to introduce any new laws without asking parliament.
This is a constitutional crisis
The EU repeal bill was passed in the same manner as other like passing of an emergency powers legislation based partly on fake nationalism, paranoia, and ignorance, that is on a 3 line whip. Excellent demonstration of democracy: a strangely worded referendum, followed by all crying out loud about the will of the people: what will? million people march against the Iraq war? prevention of terrorism bills since 1975? massively cutting NHS laws? playing monopoly with property legislation leading housing shortages? This is a sad day. The Tory party indiscipline has led to one of the biggest economic/constitutional crisis. Please join me in condolence at the loss of sense and sensibility. If you have belief then please call on your deities to get us out of our mess. And agnostic/atheist brothers and sisters please look for a way out by applying your superior logic. Bad news all round.
So much for ‘taking back control’
A bad result, but hardly earth-shattering. On to the Committee stage which was always going to be more interesting. Poor brexiters don't get it, this is just the start of the serious process.
And it doesn't take you out of the EU, it's a rather loutish instrument to carry over EU law when it happens. Oh, and ministers of a party that couldn't even win a majority can amend law as they see fit. So much for "taking back control".
The real business remains in Brussels. You can enact what you like, but the kind of brexit you get is down to others. Not going very well, is it?
As for Labour, I've always been a deselection sceptic but you have to draw the line somewhere. Time to boot some kippers out. It's not like either Corbyn or his critics are that enamoured of them.
Would Tories pass this bill if Corbyn was pushing for these powers?
I don't really get the argument that voting against this bill will cause a chaotic brexit: brexit is going to be pretty chaotic whatever happens. What this bill does is affect the governance of the UK (by undermining parliamentary sovereignty) AFTER brexit. Nobody in the EU27 will give a crap either way.
The crux of the argument seems to be that parliament would just squabble endlessly about brexit, so the government should 'take back control' from parliament and from the people - that's what the Leaver leaders really meant with that phrase! Surely the brexit voters didn't believe that it would be them taking back control? Perish the thought - control is the preserve of the 'natural party of government' (as they vainly call themselves).
The Tories should really be asking themselves: 'Can we trust a Labour government under Corbyn with these new powers?' If they say no, they should vote against the bill. But they won't - because they're hypocrites.
Not only have brexit voters made it even easier for the 'elite' to ride roughshod over them, but they've also voted to lose their freedom of movement and to ensure their own impoverishmen, irrelevance, marginalisation. Sheer folly!
Honour and integrity are lacking
Some Conservative MPs are deeply concerned about aspects of last night's bill but still they voted for it. Some Labour MPs knew that it would hand the Conservatives excessive power but still they voted for it. Honour and integrity seem to be sadly lacking in Westminster, especially when it comes to chiseling away at democracy.
I'm glad that Starmer has already said that Labour would remove the worst aspects of the bill when they attain government.
This will be used to secure a hard Brexit
The discussion on the Repeal bill misses a vital point. For the hard-line Brexiteers the whole point of leaving the EU is to make it possible to enact the kind of legislative changes required to turn Britain into a neo-liberal small-State, low tax, low regulation, ultra-free market economy. The 'bonfire of the regulations' that Fox et al slather for.
This Bill gives them that power - the ability to slash and burn what they see as 'regulatory burdens' on business, things like worker protection, environmental protection, consumer protection - all those pesky limitations to the Nirvana that is a free market, individualistic, 'devil take the hindmost' economy.
This is why the 'Henry VIII' must must be removed.
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Whatever your political view is, what happened last night ensures only one thing: that when the exact opposite of what you want gets to form a cabinet, they will have complete power to do exactly the opposite of what you want without the slightest hindrance.
That is the exact opposite of what "the will of the people" stands for and makes an utter mockery of any notion of "taking back control", because it creates the effect of an unassailable House of Commons majority for even the weakest minority government, and renders any notion of there being an Opposition meaningless.