Brexit Briefing: Mutiny And A Bounty<\/b>
\nAnd so it began. This week the EU Withdrawal Bill hit Parliament for its Committee Stage.<\/p>\n
This is where MPs can try to amend the legislation, and with the Government\u2019s slim majority of 13 (rising to 25 when you count in \u2018Labour Leavers\u2019), there is a good chance changes could be snuck through thanks to the so-called Brexit Mutineers.<\/p>\n
Theresa May and David Davis tried to head off two possible defeats with amendments of their own \u2013 yet both seemed to rile up potential rebels more than placate them.<\/p>\n
The first was on putting the date of departure from the EU into the Bill \u2013 11pm on March 29, 2019. This move was met with glee by Brexiteers, who were uneasy that the Bill only referred to an \u201cexit date\u201d without specifying when that would be.<\/p>\n
For Remainers, such as former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Tory grandee Ken Clarke, such a move only weakens the UK\u2019s negotiating position.<\/p>\n
They argued that by locking the date in statute, there is no flexibility to extend talks if a deal is close but not quite concluded by the day of planned departure.<\/p>\n
Putting to one side whether the EU would want to extend the talks, having the departure date in the Bill isn\u2019t as concrete as it appears. Under the Henry VIII powers also in the document, ministers have the power to change clauses of the Bill, including this one.<\/p>\n
The second \u2018concession\u2019 was to give Parliament a meaningful vote on the deal. Labour\u2019s Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer called it a \u201csignificant climbdown\u201d, but as I explained here, it\u2019s really not.<\/p>\n
In short, MPs will be left with the choice of backing the deal the Government strikes or leaving the EU without any deal. Again, this is better news for Hard Brexiteers than remainers.<\/p>\n
The debates themselves were a mixture of discussing the amendments (see Ken Clarke), and reheating the referendum slogans about remainers not being confident enough that the UK could govern itself (looking at you, Priti Patel).<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another six days of debate in committee stage \u2013 that\u2019s almost 50 hours. Fingers crossed the quality improves.<\/p>\n
2)\u00a0 Business Groups Believe There\u2019s A 50% Chance Of \u2018No Deal\u2019<\/p>\n
Promising MPs they will get a vote on the deal, depends, of course, on whether a deal can be struck at all.<\/p>\n
Business groups from across Europe were invited to Downing Street this week to tell Theresa May and David Davis what they wanted to see from the negotiations with Brussels.<\/p>\n
After the chat<\/a>, Emma Marcegaglia, head of the BusinessEurope lobby group, said in an interview: \u201cI asked Davis whether he still thought a deal was possible.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said there was a 50-50 chance.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesman for the Brexit secretary described the comments as \u201ccategorically untrue\u201d, adding \u201cDavid Davis did not say this.\u201d<\/p>\n But a veteran Eurosceptic Tory MP also gave that ratio when I asked him this week what the chances of a deal were, and the EU\u2019s chief negotiator Michel Barnier revealed the bloc was drawing up \u2018no deal\u2019 contingency plans.<\/p>\n He\u00a0told French newspaper,\u00a0Le Journal du Dimanche:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not my option, but it\u2019s a possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone needs to plan for it, member states and businesses alike. We too are preparing for it technically.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sun reported today that the Prime Minister is prepared to offer a \u00a340billion bounty as a financial settlement to get the trade talks going \u2013 halfway between the UK\u2019s previous position and what Brussels is holding out for.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0No Beer And Sandwiches At Number 10 For Trade Unions<\/p>\n While the red carpet was rolled out to businesses this week, ministers are ignoring meeting requests with one of the UK\u2019s biggest trade unions to discuss working people\u2019s Brexit fears, the GMB chief has claimed.<\/p>\n Tim Roache, General Secretary of the 630,000-strong GMB union, said ministers had not responded to his offer to meet with him to discuss the UK\u2019s negotiations with the EU.<\/p>\n His concerns over a lack of engagement were echoed by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), with one source telling HuffPost UK there\u2019s been\u00a0\u201cvery little\u201d dialogue compared to what they believe is needed.<\/p>\n Speaking at an IPPR think tank event on Tuesday, Roache said: \u201cThere\u2019s been no interactions with the Trade Union movement and the very real experiences – day-in day-out – what those people face.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked by HuffPost UK if a similar Downing Street meeting to the one given to the business community was penciled in for the trade union movement, Roache said: \u201cThere\u2019s very little to say.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we have offered ourselves up, we\u2019ve said both through the TUC and particularly as the GMB that we want to work with Government.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have many experiences that we want to share and want to bring to the table, but we haven\u2019t had a response.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n The lack of engagement with the trade unions comes despite David Davis having his first meeting after being appointed Brexit Secretary with TUC General Secretary Frances O\u2019Grady.<\/p>\n A DexEU spokesperson said it was \u201chearing from as many organisations, companies and institutions as possible, including trade unions, and will continue to do so as we move towards our exit from the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n 4) Brexit Killing Off Aston Martin Would Take Us Beyond Any Previous Understanding Of Irony<\/p>\n They are the words that Brexiteers dread to hear, but one of the UK\u2019s most iconic brands warned this week that \u2018no-deal\u2019 would be \u201csemi-catastrophic\u201d.<\/p>\n Aston Martin\u2019s chief financial officer Mark Wilson told MPs this week the company could have to halt production of all its cars if Theresa May fails to secure a Brexit deal.<\/p>\n The high-end car manufacturer makes all its vehicles in the UK, and Wilson told the Commons Business,\u00a0Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday that leaving the EU without an agreement could hit exports dramatically.<\/p>\n Every car model in the UK currently is tested by the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) to make sure it is valid to be sold.<\/p>\n Currently VCA approved cars are able to be sold across the EU thanks to the UK\u2019s membership.<\/p>\n However car manufacturers warned that in the event of a so-called \u2018no-deal\u2019 Brexit,\u00a0the VCA approval would no longer be valid.<\/p>\n Wilson told MPs this would incur \u201csignificant costs\u201d for the company as it tried to gets its models certified for sale abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are a British company. We produce our cars exclusively in Britain and will continue to do so. Without VCA type approval it really is a stark picture for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added the result could include \u201cthe semi-catastrophic effects of having to stop production because we only produce cars in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n 5) Guess What? There\u2019s Still Loads Of Warnings About Customs Delays<\/p>\n It seems that no matter how many times it is said, people still act shocked. This week there was yet another warning about customs delays after Brexit.<\/p>\n The Home Affairs Committee called for \u201curgent acceleration\u201d in the contingency planning for a no deal if the UK is to avoid chaos at its borders.<\/p>\n In a report published on Thursday, MPs told ministers to reveal early in the New Year how Britain will handle customs checks if trade talks with the EU collapse.<\/p>\n The MPs also warned it would be \u201cextremely damaging\u201d, including to national security, if any agreement on a Brexit transition deal was delayed beyond the first quarter of 2018.<\/p>\n The warnings about customs delays are even more barbed now the Government has announced it will no longer try to build a lorry holding park in Stanford West in Kent to deal with lorry congestion heading towards Dover.<\/p>\n The 3,600-capacity lorry park was an alternative to Operation Stack, which sees lorries park up on the M20 heading into the port at times of cross-channel disruption.<\/p>\n In a written statement to MPs, Grayling confirmed no alternative to Operation Stack would be in place by the time the UK leaves the EU.<\/p>\n Grayling said Highways England would be looking into an \u201cinterim solution\u201d for dealing with tailbacks to be in place by March 2019.<\/p>\n However, this will still involve lorries being parked up on the M20.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThis could, for example, be through holding HGVs in the centre of the motorway rather than on the coastbound carriageway.<\/p>\n \u201cDifferent technologies ranging from steel barriers to moveable barrier systems could be deployed to deliver these solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Get Angry, Get Blogging\u2026<\/p>\n At HuffPost we love a good blog, and here are the finest Brexit-penned entries from this week. Have a read, and if any of them provoke an urge in you to speak your brain, send a blog to\u00a0ukblogteam@huffingtonpost.com<\/a>\u00a0and you could find yourself in this very newsletter.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s\u00a0Jon Trickett\u00a0on how the \u201cweak, divided\u201d government is harming real lives.<\/p>\n Paul Goldsmith\u00a0on why you should care about legislation hidden in the EU Withdrawal Bill.<\/p>\n Maike Bohn\u00a0on the \u201clong and winding Brexit road\u201d for EU nationals.<\/p>\n Charlie Proctor\u00a0says thanks to Brexit \u2018mutineers\u2019 putting the country\u2019s interests before their party\u2019s. Brexit Briefing: Mutiny And A Bounty And so it began. This week the EU Withdrawal Bill hit Parliament for its Committee Stage. This is where MPs can try to amend the legislation, and with the Government\u2019s slim majority of 13 (rising to 25 when you count in \u2018Labour Leavers\u2019), there is a good chance changes … Continue reading Brexit Briefing: Mutiny And A Bounty<\/span>
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\nwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/brexit-briefing-ken-clarke-withdrawal_uk_5a0dc9bce4b0c0b2f2f8a297<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"