Theresa May has said a “new and improved” Brexit deal will be put to MPs when they vote on the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill in early June.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Mrs May said the bill will be a “bold offer”.
Extra protections for workers are expected to be among the proposals, with Mrs May trying to win over the support of some Labour MPs in a final attempt to get her Brexit plan passed.
This comes after the government’s talks with Labour over Brexit broke down.
Mrs May announced this week that MPs will vote on the bill – which would bring the withdrawal agreement into UK law – in the week beginning 3 June. If the bill is not passed, the default position is that the UK will leave the EU on 31 October without a deal.
The Brexit secretary says if MPs don’t pass the withdrawal deal in parliament, a no-deal situation will become more likely.
Preparations for a no-deal Brexit should be brought forward “at pace” if MPs do not back the prime minister’s deal, the Brexit secretary has warned.
The comments are likely to reignite the debate about whether the government should be prepared to take the UK out of the European Union with no-deal if – as expected – MPs fail to back the withdrawal agreement when it returns to the House of Commons in June.
Stephen Barclay told Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Members of Parliament do need to face facts, and if the deal were not to go through then there are only two alternatives – you either leave with a no-deal or you revoke.
“If parliament won’t back a deal, I do think we need to bring forward our preparations to mitigate no-deal, because we will need to use the additional time we have, and we need to move at pace to do so.”
The Brexit secretary was speaking on a visit to Quinn Industrial Holdings, a cement manufacturer with sites that straddle the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Lorries and employees at the firm are estimated to make more than 900 border crossings every day.
Asked whether the government has taken preparations for no-deal seriously enough, Mr Barclay said: “We need to do more and use the additional time that we have to prepare further.
“There is no guarantee that the EU27 will grant an extension, that isn’t a UK decision on 31 October, so we do need to prepare for a no-deal and ensure that we use the time to prepare to mitigate any disruption as best we can.”
Source: Sky News
Theresa May suggests her upcoming deal offered to the Commons will have new elements, as a confirmation vote is proposed.
Labour’s Brexit spokesman has suggested Theresa May could end parliamentary deadlock by including a “confirmatory” public vote as part of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) – as the PM claims to offer a “bold” new deal.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said he was doubtful another attempt to get the WAB through parliament would succeed.
He told Sky News: “We’ve had two years of people saying this is the sort of deal I desire.
“It’s the numbers that matter and so whatever it is it’s got to be something that gets through parliament and there an increasing number of people now who want to see a confirmatory vote to break the impasse.
“We said clearly there [party manifesto] that if we couldn’t get changes to the deal, and couldn’t get a general election, then we support the option of a public vote, and Jeremy Corbyn has said in terms that if the prime minister is confident that she’s got the right deal for the economy and communities she shouldn’t be afraid of putting that to the public.”
His comments come as the prime minister pens a letter in The Sunday Times, promising “a new, bold offer to MPs” in the WAB. This content of this offer at this stage is unclear, as she continues to say “the cabinet will consider the details of those changes next week”.
In her piece, Mrs May promises “an improved package of measures that I believe can win new support. It will deliver a Brexit that honours the decision the British people took in the referendum with a Brexit that is good for jobs, good for our security, and which sets the whole UK on course for a bright future outside the EU”.
Source: SkyNews
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