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The 'super Saturday' Brexit amendments MPs are voting on – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

The 'super Saturday' Brexit amendments MPs are voting on – The Guardian, Theguardian.com


Boris Johnson delivering a statement in the House of Commons, London, to update the House on his new Brexit deal.

Boris Johnson delivering a statement in the House of Commons, London, to update the House on his new Brexit deal. Photograph: UK Parliament / Jessica Taylor / PA

What MPs are voting on today

MPs have a packed timetable for “super Saturday” – the first time the Commons has met on a Saturday since 1982.

The Speaker, John Bercow, has selected two amendments from MPs trying to change, shape and amend Boris Johnson’sBrexitdeal , which is being presented as a motion for approval.

The Letwin amendment – passed by 322 votes to 306

The rebel MP SirOliver Letwin, who lost the Conservative whip and now sits as an independent after blocking a no -deal Brexit, has consistently tried to use parliamentary procedure to shape how the UK leaves the EU.

His latest amendment would withhold approval of the prime minister’s deal until the legislation to enact it – the EU withdrawal bill – is passed. This might happen next week. Passing the Letwin amendment would trigger the Benn act, which compels Johnson to request an extension to article (if a deal cannot be agreed.)

Letwin said he supported Johnson’s deal and it was “sensible”, but that he wanted to make sure there is an “insurance policy” that if the Brexit deal is approved but something goes wrong at a later stage the government has an extension already in place so there is no possible way the country can crash out without a deal. The deadline in the Benn act is 11 pm on Saturday , so this is an attempt to close down a potential loophole.

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unlikely Brexit rebel

Sir Oliver Letwin was born in London in 1956 . He studied at Eton and then Trinity College, Cambridge, and first became a Conservative MP in 1997.

However, his political career had started long before then, as he had served in Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit from 1983 to 1986. The poll tax was an idea Letwin almost single-handedly kept alive in the mid – 1980 s. In a 1985 memo, he suggested it could be introduced in Scotland first as “a trailblazer for the real thing”.

In 2016 Letwin was forced to apologize after it emerged he had co-written a paper telling Thatcher that providing financial assistance for black unemployed youth after the 1985 riots would only end up in the “disco and drug trade”. The memo, Letwin admitted, was “badly worded and wrong”.

Letwin was forced into hiding in 2001 by a desperate Conservative party, after being outed as the minister who hadPromised £ 20 bn of tax and spending cutsin an anonymous interview with the Financial Times, far beyond the party’s manifesto at the time.

In many respects, the best periods of Letwin’s career were in the policy engine room, not least when he acted as David Cameron’s fixer, when he was a cabinet office minister in the coalition government. His influence went far beyond the ministerial title.

Then he wrestled with issues such as the future of press regulation in the aftermath of the Leveson inquiry. Letwin’sbig idea, to deal with the fact that newspapers refused to accept statutory regulation, was to create an independent regulator backed by royal charter. It was neat, but the mainstream press refused to accept it.

Letwin has emerged as an unlikely Brexit rebel, going from being the ultimate loyalist to serial rebel, beginning in January 2019 when he voted with Labor to give Theresa May a two-week deadline to debate Brexit next steps if her deal was voted down.

“My right honourable friendSir Nicholas Soames, who is sitting next to me, and I have calculated that we have been in the house, collectively, for 56 years, and we have only ever, either of us, voted once against the Conservative whip, ”Letwin said.

A month later his concerns had hardened, as demonstrated in a Commons speech in which he worried that “when the chips are down” the government “would prefer to do what some of my esteemed colleagues would prefer to do: head for the exit door without a deal”. It was, he added, “a terrifying fact” – and one he resolved to prevent.

Ultimately it was to cost him his place in the Conservative party, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson removed the whip from 21 Tory rebels including Letwin, as his Brexit plans were thwarted yet again.

Dan Sabbagh

Photograph: Hannah McKay / X 03696

The amendment has the backing of Labor: however, it has been heavily criticized for denying Johnson a conclusive vote on his deal.

Other people to put their name to the amendment were Labor’s Hilary Benn, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, and the former Tory chancellor Philip Hammond.

If the government loses on the Letwin amendment, it is expected to boycott the rest of the day’s proceedings, and press ahead with tabling the withdrawal agreement bill – the legislation needed to enact Brexit.

There could then be a vote on the second reading of the bill on Tuesday – which government sources suggested could effectively become the “meaningful vote” denied to Johnson on Saturday.

Boris Johnson’s deal

If the Letwin amendment has not passed, MPs will then move on to vote for or against the prime minister’s Brexit deal. On the order paper, the government has stated: “That, in light of the new deal agreed with the European Union, which enables the United Kingdom to respect the result of the referendum on its membership of the European Union and to leave the European Union on 31 October with a deal. ”

But if the Letwin amendment has already been accepted, the motion would not signal approval – but would say the Commons “withholds approval unless and until implementing legislation is passed”. Downing Street says that would make it a meaningless vote.

The Kyle amendment

This is attached to a second motion put down by the government on Saturday, which asks MPs to vote for a no-deal Brexit. The Labor MP Peter Kyle has tabled an amendment that calls for a second referendum.

tweeted: “It’s our hope that this will give greater focus and clarity to the debate and lessen the anxiety for colleagues grappling with the very real challenges… by separating them out. ”

The text of his amendment says any final decision on the future relationship between the UK and EU “should be subject to a confirmatory referendum before exit day”.

However, the government is not expected to move the no-deal motion – because Johnson wants to leave the EU with a deal.

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