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The UK-Brussels post-Brexit trade deal offers a “historic resolution” making the country a “friendly neighbor” to the EU, Boris Johnson will tell MPs Wednesday during the vote on the deal.
The deal is expected to go through the parliamentary approval process in just one day, with support from Labor and after the EU’s pro-Brexit research group of Tory MPs said on Tuesday it would back it.
In a speech to parliament ahead of the vote, the PM will welcome the deal sealed on Christmas Eve, arguing that it represents “how Britain can be both European and sovereign”, while congratulating negotiators for the ‘having gotten at “an astonishing speed” Into the “teeth of a pandemic”.
Despite a hostile response to the deal from fishing industry executives and boat owners, the ERG’s legal advisory committee said it “preserves the sovereignty of the UK”. The verdict of the group’s so-called “star chamber” – which looked into the fine print of the 1,246-page trade deal – is a boost for Johnson. The ERG, estimated to number around 70 Tories, has been a constant thorn on Theresa May’s side on Brexit during her period of turbulence at No 10.
Keir Starmer has urged his MPs to vote for the deal, but the Labor leader faces a high-profile rebellion over fears he “will fall into the trap of rallying around this rotten deal”. Either way, the European Union (Future Relations) Bill should pass easily, despite the Scottish National Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic Party and Labor and the Alliance have all indicated that they will not support him. .
The government on Tuesday released an 80-page bill, giving MPs less than 24 hours to study it before Parliament was recalled for a day on Wednesday to approve the deal. The bill, which is expected to be voted on by MPs at 2:30 p.m., will then also have to erase the lords before receiving royal assent either late Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning.
The accelerated implementation of the legislation has been strongly condemned by the Hansard Society, a leading source of independent research on parliamentary affairs. Brigid Fowler, a senior researcher who is a highly respected expert on parliamentary processes, said this amounted to “an abdication of the constitutional responsibilities of Parliament to ensure adequate oversight of the executive and the law.”
A report by the all-party Brexit select committee said the deal’s compressed parliamentary timetable was “inevitable but worrying”.
“One of the worrying consequences of the belated agreement is that parliamentarians had very little time to read the [deal]», We read. “This means that the [deal] will not be subjected to a detailed examination before a vote in the Commons, which is an unsatisfactory result but now inevitable.
Opening Wednesday’s debate, Johnson will tell MPs that the central purpose of the legislation is “to accomplish something the British people have always known in their hearts to be done, but we have been told impossible”.
He adds: “This bill shows how Great Britain can be both European and sovereign. And our negotiators accomplished their feat with astonishing speed… We did it in less than a year, in the midst of a pandemic.
“We will now open a new chapter in our national history, concluding free trade agreements around the world, adding to the agreements with 63 countries that we have already concluded and reaffirming world Britain as a liberal force. and turned outward for good.
“Those of us who campaigned for Britain to leave the EU have never sought a break with our nearest neighbors… but a resolution, a resolution to the old and thorny issue of Great Britain with Europe, which has troubled our post-war history.
He is expected to conclude: “With this bill we will be a friendly neighbor, the best friend and ally the EU could have, working hand in hand whenever our values and interests coincide while meeting the sovereign wish of the EU. British people to live under. their own laws, made by their own elected parliament. This is the historic resolution delivered by this bill.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ERG’s legal advisory committee said: “Our overall conclusion is that the agreement preserves the UK’s sovereignty in law and fully respects the standards of sovereign-to-sovereign international treaties.
“Level playing field clauses go further than in comparable trade agreements, but their impact on the practical exercise of sovereignty will likely be limited if a strong government is dealt with.
“In any event, they do not prevent the UK from changing its laws as it sees fit at the risk of tariff countermeasures, and if these were unacceptable, the agreement could be terminated with notice. 12 months. “
ERG vice-chairman David Jones told the Guardian he would vote for the deal, adding: “What it does is replace the treaty provisions on [the] The European Union, in which we were previously as a member state, with something that is a simple, clear free trade agreement of a type that the Conservatives support.
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