European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — Clause 5 — EU Charter of Fundamental Rights — 13 Jun 2018 at 19:43

The majority of MPs voted against largely retaining the European Union "Charter of Fundamental Rights" as part of United Kingdom law following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. The proposal rejected in this vote was to retain the charter with the exception of the preamble and the element setting out the rights of European Union citizens in connection with voting, standing as a candidate, access to information, free movement, good administration, appeals, petition and consular protection.

Fundamental rights protected by the charter include: human dignity; right to life; right to the integrity of the person; prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; prohibition of slavery and forced labour; right to liberty and security; respect for private and family life; protection of personal data; right to marry and right to found a family; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of expression and information; freedom of assembly and of association; freedom of the arts and sciences; right to education; and many more.

MPs were considering the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill[1].

The motion supported by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

  • That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 5

Lords amendment 5[2] stated:

  • Page 3, line 20, leave out subsections (4) and (5) and insert—
  • “( )
  • The following provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights are not part of domestic law on or after exit day—
  • (a) the Preamble, and
  • (b) Chapter V.”

The rejected amendment would have impacted Clause 5[3] of the Bill, subsections (4) and (5) of which stated:

  • (4) The Charter of Fundamental Rights is not part of domestic law on or after exit day.
  • (5) Subsection (4) does not affect the retention in domestic law on or after exit day in accordance with this Act of any fundamental rights or principles which exist irrespective of the Charter (and references to the Charter in any case law are, so far as necessary for this purpose, to be read as if they were references to any corresponding retained fundamental rights or principles).

The explanatory notes to the Lords amendments to the Bill[4] stated, in respect of the amendment:

  • Lords Amendment 5 would provide that only the preamble to the Charter of Fundamental Rights (the Charter) and Chapter V (which relates to citizens’ rights) would be excluded from retained EU law under clause 5. This amendment would therefore mean that any directly effective rights contained in the remainder of the Charter would form part of domestic law after exit by virtue of clause 4, to the extent that these would not in any event form part of domestic law under clause 3 or clause 6.
  • Claimants would therefore continue to be able to bring legal action grounded on these rights as expressed in the Charter. The outcome of this action could be that domestic legislation which directly implements EU law could continue to be struck down on the basis of incompatibility with Charter rights.

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Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con309 (+2 tell) 1098.7%
DUP10 00100.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent1 50100.0%
Lab0 246 (+2 tell)096.5%
LDem0 11091.7%
PC0 40100.0%
SNP0 33094.3%
Total:320 301097.5%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Kenneth ClarkeRushcliffewhilst Con (front bench)no

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