Johnson’s Brexit deal to be brought before Commons this week

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MPs will be asked to vote on the prime minister’s Brexit deal this week as the government begins its push to take Britain out of the European Union next month.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) will be brought before the commons on Friday – and could be debated at first and second reading in one day, if the Speaker agrees to the timetable.

Boris Johnson said during the general election campaign that he would kick-start the process of exiting the EU before families tuck into their turkeys on Christmas Day if he was re-elected.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson told a Westminster briefing: “We plan to start the process before Christmas and will do so in the proper constitutional way in discussion with the Speaker.”

Asked if the legislation would be identical to that introduced in the last parliament, the spokesperson said: “You will have to wait for it to be published but it will reflect the agreement that we made with the EU on our withdrawal.”

The government would attempt to push the WAB through its final commons stages in January, and will hope the Bill then clears the Lords quickly to allow the UK to leave the EU on 31 January.

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However, approving the legislation will not mean the Brexit saga is over. The UK will remain in the EU until at least the end of 2020 during the implementation period.

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(PA Graphics)

This time will be used by Brussels and London to hammer out a trade deal and decide on their future relationship on subjects such as security.

But EU figures have been highly sceptical this can be sorted within the year, with chief negotiator Michel Barnier saying the timetable was “unrealistic” in leaked comments.

Johnson will undertake a minor government reshuffle later on Monday to fill gaps left by departures before making more radical changes in February.

The posts of culture secretary, Welsh secretary and environment minister are expected to be filled.

Johnson was due to address his new intake of Tory MPs arriving in Westminster on Monday.

Ahead of the private speech, a Number 10 source said: “This election and the new generation of MPs that have resulted from Labour towns turning blue will help change our politics for the better.

“The PM has been very clear that we have a responsibility to deliver a better future for our country and that we must repay the public’s trust by getting Brexit done.

“That’s why the first piece of legislation new MPs will vote on will be the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.”

The Queen will formally open parliament on Thursday when she sets out the government’s legislative programme during a slimmed-down state opening.

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  • Show Comments
    1. Corbyn was in such a bind over brexit, Tom Watson and some of the talking heads at the guardian didn’t help by banging on about taking a more pro-remain stance. As we’ve seen in the election the main pro-remain party headed by Jo Swinson, got trounced, she even lost her seat, if Jezza had been more openly pro-remain, labours vote share would of been even more dire imo.

      There is a strong leave contingent in labour, not just from the voters but the leadership too, Tony Benn laid out this position in detail as the eu stood in the way regarding renationalising many industries and infrastructure, due to economic policies members needed to abide by. But there is a massive danger in brexit which a lot of people across the political spectrum got blindsided by.

      The americans, wanted to damage the eu trading block due to it being a rival, taking out one of the main members they hoped would cause a cascade affect, so they could come in and strip mine regulations, worker and environmental protections and open up the european health industry to their corporations, as the european health industries are mainly still public funded and have strict guidelines regarding profiteering. Nhs was the jewel in the crown as it set price caps regarding pharmaceuticals which other countries would use as the standard for how much they’d pay american big pharma too.

      This is why when labour revealed the trade talks and what they were really about, carefully hidden and redacted from the public, there was panic in the ranks of the british and american establishment and they went full out on discrediting the leak. Used the old canard of being a soviet style influence operation, like russia is still part the soviet union and lefties can’t be trusted as they’ll sell us out to the red menace, was like we’re still living in the 1930’s to 1980’s and russia isn’t a free market economy, dominated by oligarchs, running influence campaigns on behalf of the Anglo-american establishment, especially during elections and referendums, plausible deniability, it was the ruskies the fiends.

      This is why we’re seeing a rise in faux populism and religious zealotry of the right and far right variety taking place across the planet, in a word it’s good for business, especially anglo-american interests. Discredit the left by dumping all the baggage of the right wing establishment onto them, put on the clothes of the left and pretend to care.

      Hard left/far left are antisemites, out of touch elitists, don’t care about the working class, live in their ivory towers, no one likes their leader, only care about minorities, immigrants and terrorists, who want to replace us, on and on (these last ones are something the establishment has never cared about, apart from the use of terrorism to discredit social movements and use fear to swing societies further right, taking away civil liberties in the process, operation gladio is just one example of what I speak).

      This keeps the left mainly and the progressive centre left tied down so we don’t offer the sort of resistance that could derail these carefully laid out plans, that have been decades in the making, constantly having to reply to the smears, very little time to discuss what’s truly in play.

      The killer blow isn’t the billionaire owned media, that’s just tenderising the meat, it’s the behind the scenes monkeying using specialists, dark money funded echo chambers that rely on repetition of message, manipulating our fears and especially targeting vulnerable neurotic individuals. There is a new book out by whistleblower Christopher Wylie called Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, it goes into this in depth, as he helped set up the technology. If you’re low on cash and feeling cheeky you could sign up to an audible account and use the free 30 day trial to listen to it, cancel before the 30 days are up. Apologies for the long post, times like these though.

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