The British government is on track to trigger the Brexit process by the end of March, after the legislation authorising the government to start negotiations passed through the House of Commons on Wednesday without any amendments.
The legislation will now pass to the House of Lords, which will consider it when it returns from recess on February 20. In the end, 494 MPs from the Labour and the Conservatives voted in favour of the legislation, with 52 Labour MPs rebelling alongside others from the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Nationalist Party.
Among the Labour rebels was a shadow cabinet minister Clive Lewis, who resigned from that role, putting the total number of senior shadow cabinet resignations during the course of the legislation at four.
The unamended Bill was passed following two days of debate this week, as attempts to put conditions on the Bill were defeated. Some suggestions — such as that ensuring guarantee that the government would fight to protect the right of EU citizens already in the U.K. to remain afterwards — were defeated more narrowly than the main Bill: by 332 to 290. Another one, which sought to commit the government to extra funding for the National Health Service— as was promised by the Leave campaign during the referendum — was also defeated.
The government clarified, however, that Parliament would have the final say on the deal agreed with Europe after the two-year negotiation process — a move that was billed by the Labour as a “concession”.
However, others objected to the speedy way the Bill moved through the house, with the SNP’s Alex Salmond accusing the government of “railroading” the legislation in a way that had not been seen for over a century. “This is just take it or leave it and it isn’t a meaningful concession,” said Labour MP Liz Kendall earlier in the day.
On Thursday, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn defended the party’s stance, which sought to introduce amendments, but finally backed the Bill. “There was a referendum, there was a decision by the people of this country, and we support the result of the referendum and have to carry it out,” he said.
No blank cheque
“The government does not have a blank cheque to set up an offshore tax haven in Britain… just the authority to proceed with negotiations,” he said, adding the Labour would have the opportunity to shape post-Brexit Britain — when the great repeal Bill converting EU legislation to British laws comes before Parliament. “We want an investment-led economy.”
The next major challenge for the government will come in late February when the Bill moves to the Lords.
The government has signalled it expects it to respect the result of the referendum, though its anxieties about the conditions the Lords could put on the legislation were revealed as a government source told that opposing the Bill could result in an “overwhelming public call” to abolish the Upper House.
