Ministers urged to 'get a grip' as flagship Brexit bill is delayed again
3 min read
Ministers have been urged to "get a grip" after it emerged that the Government's flagship Brexit bill will not return to the Commons for at least another fortnight.
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom confirmed that the legislation - which was amended 15 times in the House of Lords - will not be considered by MPs in the week beginning 4 June, when they return from the Whitsun mini-recess.
The Government faces a series of knife-edge votes in an attempt to overturn those changes, which included calls for the UK to stay in a customs union and join the European Economic Area, a move which would effectively keep Britain in the single market.
Ms Leadson told MPs: "We will be bringing the Withdrawal Bill back to this place within weeks, certainly soon after the short Whitsun recess and of course we will debate (the Lords amendments) at length as we have done all the way through."
Her comments echoed those of government Chief Whip Julian Smith, who told Tory MPs on Tuesday that the bill would return to the Commons next month.
But shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman said: "Yesterday the Chief Whip promised Tory MPs that a date had been set for crucial Commons votes on Brexit. But less than 24 hours later, Andrea Leadsom comes to Parliament and says nothing has been agreed.
"Cabinet ministers are either not talking to one another or keeping Parliament in the dark. Whatever their excuses, ministers need to get a grip, end the confusion and back Labour’s plan for a new UK-EU customs union.”
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, of the Best for Britain campaign group, said: "As a former teacher, these delays remind me of the excuses from students who wouldn't admit they neither understood nor had the will to actually do their homework.
"Brexit is far more complicated than anyone ever imagined and it’s looking increasingly unlikely to be delivered in a form that will please anybody.
"That’s why we need a vote or the deal, if we ever get a deal, so the people can have the final say."
'UNPRECEDENTED'
There were heated clashes in the House of Commons as Ms Leadsom revealed the latest delay to the flagship bill.
Ms Leadsom's Labour opposite number Valerie Vaz tore into the Commons leader, saying elements of the Brexit bill timetable had appeared in the media before MPs had had a chance to debate them.
“This is unprecedented to treat parliament in this way," she said.
"Business is announced in the media and not in the House. Members of the DUP surely don’t want to prop up a Government that treats parliament in this way, short term, limping from one week to the next."
She called on leading Brexiteers Jacob Rees-Mogg, Peter Bone and Bill Cash to stand up for “parliamentary sovereignty”.
The SNP's Pete Wishart also pressed Ms Leadsom for a "categoric assurance" that the Government would not "simply lump together all these Lords amendments into one package to try and curtail debate and voting".
He said: “These are important measures that we have to consider for the first time and can we get a categoric assurance that this Government won’t revert to type and try to close down debate, scrutiny and vote?"
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