Insight
Theresa May’s meaningless meaningful vote? by Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska 8 May 2018
Though many British parliamentarians believe Brexit will harm the UK, it is unlikely that they will derail it. However, Westminster could help to mitigate its negative consequences. Prime Minister Theresa May has promised that the UK parliament will have a “meaningful vote” on the withdrawal agreement with the European Union. She wants to submit the deal to Parliament together with a political declaration on the future relationship with the bloc. The government has tried to make the vote meaningless, however, by insisting that if Parliament rejects the package, Britain will leave the EU without a deal. On April 30th the House of Lords adopted an amendment to the government’s Withdrawal Bill (repealing the European Union Act) in an attempt to reassert parliamentary sovereignty. The amendment is designed to ensure that the British parliament votes on the withdrawal agreement before the European Parliament ratifies it. The government had already promised to ensure this, but peers worry that May might present the agreement to Parliament at the very last moment, so that it has no choice but to approve it. Lord Hailsham, a former Conservative cabinet minister, who presented the amendment ahead of the vote, said it would ensure that Parliament has a real choice about whether to accept or reject the withdrawal agreement. Then, if Parliament does reject the deal, it would have several options: vote to crash out of the EU with no deal; instruct the government to embark on further negotiations with the EU; hold a referendum on the deal; or decide to remain in the EU. The amendment also provides that Parliament could instruct the prime minister to choose one of those options if there is no agreement between the UK and the EU-27 by February 28th 2019, one month before the UK’s scheduled departure from the EU. The revised draft of the Withdrawal Bill will return to the Commons after its third reading in the Lords. The elected chamber will then have to decide whether to accept the changes. In December 2017, 12 Conservative MPs voted with Labour for the ‘Grieve Amendment’ to the Withdrawal Bill, put forward by CER INSIGHT: Theresa May’s meaningless meaningful vote? 8 May 2018
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