Conservative
brexiteer, Stephen Phillips MP, made an interesting argument in support of Parliamentary accountability of
Brexit (“Gagging parliament on Brexit is a breach of our constitution,” 12 October, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/11/we-voted-brexit-keep-parliament-sovereign-wont-be-gagged )
In
parliament on Monday and Wednesday many MPs – Mr Philips, Nick Clegg (LibDem), Andrew
Tyrie (Tory), and Ed Miliband (Labour), to name but a few- stood up and
demanded Parliament have its rightful say on the terms of the UK’s exit from the
EU, especially as one of the key arguments put forward by the Brexiteers was
to restore sovereignty of the British Parliament
to make decisions.One week after the Brexit referendum, at the end of June, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP tabled the following Early Day Motion calling for this very thing:
“That
this House believes the next steps arising from the outcome of the EU
referendum must be subject to proper parliamentary scrutiny and therefore that
the Government should not submit its declaration to the European Council
invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty unless and until the full proposals it
intends to submit to the Commission to activate the process of withdrawal from
the EU are debated in full and voted upon by Parliament” ( EDM 269; http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2016-17/269)
Yet only
18 MPs backed theEDM, but none of those complaining this week did. I wonder why
not.
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