European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill — Decline Second Reading — 1 Feb 2017 at 18:47

The majority of MPs voted to empower the Prime Minister to give notification of the United Kingdom's intention to leave the European Union.

MPs were considering the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill^[1]

The Bill's operative clause was titled: Power to notify withdrawal from the EU and stated:

• (1) The Prime Minister may notify, under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the EU.
• (2) This section has effect despite any provision made by or under the European Communities Act 1972 or any other enactment.

MPs were discussing the motion:

• That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The amendment rejected in this vote sought to replace the existing text so the motion would have become:

• That this House
• declines to give a Second Reading to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill as the Government has set out no provision for effective consultation with the devolved administrations on implementing Article 50, has yet to publish a White Paper detailing the Government's policy proposals, has refused to give a guarantee on the position of EU nationals in the UK, has left unanswered a range of detailed questions covering many policy areas about the full implications of withdrawal from the single market and has provided no assurance that a future parliamentary vote will be anything other than irrelevant, as withdrawal from the European Union follows two years after the invoking of Article 50 if agreement is not reached in the forthcoming negotiations, unless they are prolonged by unanimity.”

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill 2016-17

Debate in Parliament |