Theresa May’s tiny Brexit bill is a massive f**k you to Britain [TWEETS]

In other words, May can trigger Article 50 unconditionally. And parliament only has five days to debate the bill.

The reaction

Opposition MPs reacted furiously to the bill. Labour Co-operative MP Chris Leslie stated:

The Government had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the courts to bring this Bill before Parliament and yet they still seem determined to gag parliamentarians as much as possible.

He continued:

This is the most significant law we’ve ever debated on our relationship with Europe and yet the Government will only give it an eighth of the time that was spent on the Maastricht Treaty.

And he was not alone. Ben Bradshaw branded the bill as “contempt of Parliament”. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was scathing:

This Bill is short and not sweet.  Given how long he’s been campaigning to leave the, it’s amazing this 133 word bill took David Davis such long time – that’s only 5 words a day since Brexit.

Rumours, rumours and more rumours

And in the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn finally admitted he is planning to impose a three-line whip for the vote. This immediately triggered a series of rumours over which MPs will resign.

This rumour mill was reflected in tweets. Sky Political Correspondent Beth Rigby tweeted:

NEW Tulip Siddiq tells me she'll resign from front bench if 3 line whip. MPs saying Clive Lewis/Cat Smith/Dawn Butler/Jo Stevens'll quit too

— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) January 26, 2017

Followed an hour and a half later by a retraction/clarification:

NEW: Cat Smith's office say she's staying on. "She has no intention of resigning and intents to vote with the whip" Awaiting Lewis & Stevens

— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) January 26, 2017

Subsequently, the rumours of Lewis’ resignation also proved to be false. He confirmed he will be voting for the bill.

And there may well be MPs who defy the party line and resign. But at the time of publication, the majority of the threatened resignations are theoretical speculation.

Amendments

Despite the small amount of time devoted to parliament debating the bill, MPs will propose amendments. Alex Salmond has already suggested the SNP will propose 50 of them. And as Labour MP Chuka Umunna stated:

It is, therefore, unlikely that the bill will stay quite so short. But, as it stands, both the length of the bill and the time allocated to for debate shows a clear contempt for the parliamentary purpose. And that should worry all of us who don’t want to see our NHS, workers’ rights and environmental protections sold off to the highest bidder.

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