Over the past few months, the Parliamentary agenda has been dominated by debates on the Government’s EU (Withdrawal) Bill which covers not whether Brexit should take place. Rather it covers the terms on which Brexit should be approached by the Government, including how environmental and other protections, together with UK citizen’s rights and freedoms that are currently guaranteed by EU legislation, can be converted into UK law following Brexit. It is a highly controversial piece of legislation because of the way Government Ministers have tried to use the Bill to take more power for themselves at the expense of scrutiny by elected MPs and the public.
Despite the deficiencies in the Bill which led me and other Opposition MPs to support amendments to it, the Bill completed its House of Commons stages this month. It now goes to the House of Lords for further consideration before coming back to the Commons – probably around May.
