Labour attempts to force government publication of Brexit legal advice

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Labour will today try to force a binding vote in the Commons calling on the government to publish its legal advice on the EU withdrawal agreement. This move was anticipated last week, when Keir Starmer first said MPs must have the opportunity to scrutinise the attorney general’s legal advice – particularly on the ‘backstop’ – before voting on the final deal. The Shadow Brexit Secretary yesterday said: “At this critical stage, MPs can’t be kept in the dark nor can we risk parliament being bounced into a decision without having all of the facts available.” As expected, the party will be using a ‘humble address’ – the old parliamentary procedure used by Starmer last year to force the release of Brexit impact assessments.

Speaking of impact assessments… Labour MP Chuka Umunna, joined by Tory Remainer Anna Soubry, has tabled an amendment to the Finance Bill that would compel the government to publish an economic impact assessment of the Brexit deal. This would be a comparison not between Theresa May’s deal and no deal – i.e. what the government wants, as it sets such a low bar that anything the Prime Minister presents would seem reasonable – but instead a comparison between our current deal (EU membership) and May’s deal. So far, the signatories are from six parties, and they include pro-EU Labour MPs, Lib Dems and Tory Remainers (Dr Sarah Wollaston, Dominic Grieve, etc). Umunna is optimistic that the Labour frontbench will end up backing it, so this is a crucial development and worth keeping an eye on.

On the other end of the Brexit spectrum, there’s Kate Hoey. One of the core Labour Leavers, the MP for Vauxhall has today written a piece for LabourList confirming that she will probably vote against May’s deal. The main reason, she says, is that the Prime Minister has “fallen for” the Irish government’s warnings against a hard border. “During all my years as an MP, the interest shown by most of my colleagues in Northern Ireland has been minimal… So it has been rather ironic that in the Brexit debate Labour MPs have been queuing up to mention Northern Ireland,” she writes scathingly.

Hoey goes on to accuse Leo Varadkar, who has “erected and maintained a hard border against Northern Ireland fishermen in the hope that this will exert some kind of influence on the UK during the wider Brexit negotiations”, of “hypocrisy” and behaving “rather shamefully”. Agree or disagree, the article is a must-read – and it confirms that the number of Labour rebels Theresa May can rely upon to help get her deal passed by the Commons is dwindling.

Sienna @siennamarla

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