The PM is showing contempt for parliament. MPs must take back control.
One shouldn’t be surprised. A Prime Minister who is willing to use EU citizens as bargaining chips can’t be expected to pass up the chance to hold parliament hostage.
Because that’s what her so-called U-turn on MPs voting on the as-yet-unstated terms of Brexit she’ll be fighting for amounts to.
After a government lawyer batting off a High Court challenge to Theresa May’s resistance to parliamentary scrutiny said it was ‘very likely that any such agreement will be subject to ratification,’ the Times has more detail:
“Senior sources confirmed that MPs would be asked to ratify any agreement between Britain and the other 27 member states at the end of the Brexit negotiations.
They will not have the power to amend the deal, however, and if parliament chose to veto the plan, Britain would still leave the EU — but without any new trading or co-operation arrangements in place.”
In other words, MPs will be handed whatever deal May’s team of Brexit monkeys cook up and told to either vote for it, or let the country drive off a cliff without even the pathetic safety net the government has yet to describe, let alone construct.
This is not democracy. This is a hostage situation. 100 days into her premiership, Theresa May is proving herself to have utter contempt for parliament, and playing mere lip service to the interests of this country.
As Left Foot Forward reported yesterday, the damage done by Brexit by means of a falling pound and rising prices is already set to fall hardest on 11.5 million families our government saw fit to punish for the bankers’ financial crash. This is no way to ‘stick it to the elites’.
And this morning we learn the cabinet has been warned by the Treasury, NIESR, the Centre for Economic Performance, and the LSE that GDP could fall 4.5 per cent by 2030, and of a ‘clogging up’ of Britain’s ports, if we leave the EU customs union.
It’s simply not on for the Prime Minister and her band of fanatics to bypass parliament and impose a secret deal on the country, and then order our elected delegates to rubber-stamp it or leave Britain naked and crippled against the wind.
MPs need to take back control. They should start today at PMQs.
Adam Barnett is staff writer for Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter @AdamBarnett13
See: Forget the Daily Mail: Four reasons MPs should have a proper say on Brexit
6 Responses to “Theresa May’s Brexit ‘U-turn’ on MPs vote is a hostage situation, not democracy”
Craig Mackay
This is not Russia or Turkey. The Prime Minister cannot simply make a statement as reported in the Times. Should Parliament reject the Tory Brexit deal it can also vote to withdraw the Article 50 declaration (it has been said by Donald Tusk that that is perfectly acceptable) so the idea that rejecting the Brexit proposal and then leaving with no arrangements in place is undoubtedly possible but Parliament would, one hopes, see sense momentarily and not accept that either.