Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill passes Parliament but lawmakers reject timetable

Lawmakers are now voting on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s planned timetable for the rest of the week – which is where it could get harder for Downing Street.

The government hopes to ram its Brexit bill through all of its stages in the House of Commons this week, before it’s pushed on to the House of Lords for approval as quickly as possible. If the government loses this vote, Johnson said earlier he would scrap his Brexit deal and push for a snap general election.

UK lawmakers agree to advance Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit legislation. A knife-edge vote is up next, on its fast-track timetable.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) passed by 329 votes to 299 – giving it a majority of 30 votes.

Lawmakers leave the House of Commons to cast their votes.

Lawmakers are now voting on whether to pass Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB).

If it passes, lawmakers will then vote on the government’s “programme motion” – which is the timeline for the Bill to pass through all its stages in the House of Commons.

The UK government has asked for a three-day timeline, with everything to be wrapped up by Thursday. The bill will then go to the House of Lords for approval as quickly as possible.

It’s an ambitious task, given the last big EU upheaval, the Lisbon Treaty, was poured over in 25 sittings over five months.

Labour’s chief whip has written to the Government’s Chief Whip, Mark Spencer, to stress that there is not enough time to scrutinize the legal text of the Brexit deal.

“Labour remain available to seek to agree a consensus on a timetable to scrutinize this deal that would command the support of all sides of the House,” Labour Whips tweeted.

Read the letter, in full, below:

In what is turning into one of the strangest days in the short history of Brexit, some interesting conversations are taking place around Westminster. 

Cast your mind back to 2017: The Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, you’ll recall, agreed to support Theresa May’s minority government in exchange for an extra £1bn ($1.3bn) dollars for Northern Ireland. 

They then didn’t support Theresa May when she came back from Brussels late last year with a Brexit deal. 

Why? Because of something called the backstop, which sought to avoid the need for either a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The DUP’s concern was that the backstop tied Northern Ireland to the EU indefinitely and left it with no say over its future. 

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster.

Hardline Conservative Brexiteers in London supported the DUP position at the time, saying that they would not sell out the Union. However, these largely English Conservatives had another issue with the backstop, in that it tied the UK so close to Europe that it meant May’s deal was Brexit in name only (Brino, as they call it). 

Fast forward to last week and Johnson has struck a new deal with the EU. His deal, however, effectively creates a special status for Northern Ireland, meaning that it will in some respects be closer to the UK than mainland Britain. It also creates an effective border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. 

As the debate in the chamber draws nearer to its close, DUP MPs have been arguing with Conservative Brexiteers who they believe have thrown them under the bus for supporting Johnson. 

When John Redwood, an arch Conservative Brexiteer who voted against May but is backing Johnson, said that he was concerned about Northern Ireland, a DUP MP shouted in response “well what are you going to do about it.” 

Privately, some DUP MPs have been telling more liberal Conservatives that they were wrong to defy May. In the words of one Conservative MP, referring to a conversation they’d had with a DUP colleague: “He should have voted for May’s deal and not trusted the English nationalists. I warned him and this morning he had the good grace to thank me and agree that he should have listened to me.”

Ouch. 

Independent Conservative MP, Dominic Grieve has told Parliament that he will vote against the government’s program motion, because he’s concerned about its “bully boy tactics.”

Expelled Conservative MP Dominic Grieve.

“I do very much regret the programme motion. It is really treating the House in an insulting way,” Grieve said.

“And it says something about this Government that worries me. I am a Conservative, even if I’ve lost the whip I remain a Conservative, and to see a Government with a constitutional measure playing really bully boy tactics with the House, it can only be counterproductive to the very aims that the government itself would like to achieve.”

Lawmakers continue to debate the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, Nick Boles – a leader in the ex-Tory, anti-no-deal brigade – says he believes 10 Downing Street is “bluffing” and that there is “no way” Boris Johnson would pull a successful bill.

“No 10 is bluffing, as usual. There is no way that after winning a famous victory on 2nd reading the PM is going to pull the bill just because MPs reject the programme motion. He will bring forward a revised motion giving us a few more days and blame Parliament for any extension,” Boles tweeted.

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost his “respect” in a scathing speech in the House of Commons.

Watch the exchange here:

On Saturday afternoon, things looked pretty rosy for Boris Johnson. His surprise deal with Brussels last week caught everyone off guard and, here in Westminster, the consensus was that he was getting close to having the votes in Parliament to have it approved. Then an amendment was passed which wrecked all of his plans. 

Johnson’s plan, ever since getting a deal with the EU, had been to present lawmakers with an ultimatum: vote for my deal or you are responsible for either a delay or for a no-deal Brexit. The amendment, known at the Letwin amendment, gave MPs another option. 

This afternoon’s announcement that if his deal is rejected by Parliament he will seek an election is merely an extension of the same strategy. The problem for Johnson is that for many MPs, any option is preferable to backing Johnson. 

MPs of all political stripes simply don’t trust the PM. Opposition Labour MPs who might reluctantly back the deal were worried that he would sell them out on protecting workers’ rights. Northern Irish Unionists thought that Johnson’s deal would allow their Republican rivals agitate towards forcing Irish reunification. And even his own Conservative Euroskeptics worried that Johnson was giving powers away to Brussels that London would be unable to scrutinize in the future. In short, Johnson’s track record left many worried that he was a man ready to sell out anyone and everyone if it meant that he looked like that man that got Brexit done. 

Being strongarmed into backing his deal because the alternative was so horrible was for many a matter of last resort. However, knowing that the Letwin amendment would allow MPs to attach further amendments to his Brexit deal moved the calculus away from Johnson. 

By saying that he would push for an election, Johnson is back on the front foot. As he made clear in Parliament, he wants MPs to back his deal. If they knock it down, then the delay is on their hands. And that’s a point he will be only too willing to make on the stump. 

Boris Johnson’s threat to pull his Brexit bill if his program motion is voted down tonight appears to be working on some of his former colleagues.

Oliver Letwin, a former Tory who has led the charge against a no-deal Brexit, said he’s “seriously worried” that the government will pull the motion.

The Conservative Party has emailed all its members telling them that a general election is “coming up soon,” amid suggestions Boris Johnson could push for a poll tonight.

In an email seen by CNN that may have been sent prematurely, the party writes:

“Dear [member],

The next few months will decide the future of the country. So we want to continue to make sure you stay up-to-date.

Together, as a country, we’re moving forward.”

Then, in a key passage, it states:

“And with a general election coming up soon, we want to continue to keep you in the know.”

There is, of course, no election coming up yet. But Johnson earlier confirmed he would seek one if he loses tonight’s program motion and Brexit is subjected to a lengthy delay.

We’re in the Brexit endgame – or so Boris Johnson hopes.

By Thursday evening, the British Prime Minister intends to have done the seemingly impossible and passed a Brexit deal.

But whether he is able to do that depends on a series of crucial votes by lawmakers on his Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB).

Johnson is hoping to push the entirety of the WAB through Parliament this week, enabling him to keep to his pledge of taking Britain out of the EU before November.

The whole 115-page bill is online, with another 320 pages of memos and notes, so you can read it in its entirety if you want to. But since no-one wants to do that, here’s an explainer on the WAB and why it’s so important.

Jeremy Corbyn urged wavering MPs to think “very, very carefully” about how they vote on the Brexit bill later.

“No wonder some of the Conservative benches are suddenly so keen to jump on board with this deal because it opens the door to the no-deal Brexit that this House has voted against on numerous occasions,” the opposition leader said.

“This is a charter for a Brexit … that will be good for the hedge fund managers and the speculators, but bad for the communities that we represent, our industries and people’s jobs and living standards,” Corbyn added.

Brexit has paralyzed politics in the UK for more than three years. The country badly needs a new domestic agenda to deal with its housing shortages and public infrastructure, among many other things. Yet ever since the result of the 2016 referendum, Brexit has left the nation in a state of political deadlock. 

It’s been clear for months that some kind of public vote was going to be necessary to clean up the Brexit mess, and given the lack of a parliamentary majority for anything, that vote was always likely to come in the form of a general election. 

Now it looks as though we might get one. Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that if it blocks his plan for an accelerated legislative timetable later tonight, he will pull the bill and push for an election. 

Johnson has tried this twice already, though the main opposition Labour party has said no, on the grounds that it could allow the UK to fall into a no-deal scenario accidentally. That calculus could be about to change. The request for a Brexit extension, sent reluctantly by Johnson at the weekend, is now sitting with the EU, and as a Labour spokesperson told CNN, “We’ve always said take the threat of no deal away and let’s have an election.” 

If the extension is granted and it’s long enough for the nation to hold an election, then it’s game on. 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s been fairly obvious that both main UK parties have been preparing for an election for the best part of a year. And it’s likely we just heard Johnson’s campaign message in the chamber. “Are honorable members really going to tell their constituents that at the last minute, they handed the decision to Brussels? Let’s get Brexit done!” 

Lawmakers now face an ultimatum in tonight’s vote. Johnson, of course, wants his deal to pass before October 31. However, any delay to Brexit could work in his favor at the election, now tantalizingly close. Do rival parties really want to hand Johnson that easy message by delaying Brexit? Or do they think that standing up to his deal, which they think could still ultimately lead to no deal, will make Johnson look like a loser while they stood by their convictions? 

Never let it be said that politics isn’t a high-stakes game. 

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn is now speaking in the Commons, attacking Boris Johnson’s bill and warning of the risk of a no-deal Brexit at the end of its transition period.

“This deal leaves open the possibility of the UK crashing out of the UK without a deal by the end of next year,” Corbyn says.

But he has taken a couple of interventions from his own Labour Party backbench MPs, who have said they will vote in favor of the bill at its second reading later in order to then consider amendments to it. This could force the government to move towards a softer Brexit.

This confirms murmurs that the government will benefit from votes from Labour rebels who don’t like Johnson’s deal, but want to get it to the next stage so they can start amending it.

It means Johnson likely has the numbers to pass his Brexit deal, but that might not matter – especially if his program motion is voted down and the Prime Minister pulls the bill anyway.

The big question is whether that threat from Johnson, which he made just moments ago, focuses the minds of wavering Labour rebels and dissuades them from voting down his motion.

Boris Johnson will scrap the vote on his Brexit deal and push for a snap general election, if his program motion is voted down by lawmakers later.

If Parliament “gets its way and decides to delay everything,” Johnson told the Commons, “the bill will have to be pulled and we will have to go forward… to a general election.”

“I will in no way allow months more of this,” Johnson added.

The program motion has come under attack for asking MPs to consider Johnson’s Brexit deal in just three days.

Boris Johnson just took a question from his brother Jo in Parliament – which apparently allowed for some brotherly reconciliation.

Jo congratulated the Prime Minister for securing a Brexit deal. “I never doubted it for a minute,” he said to laughs on both sides of the House.

The younger Johnson – who has called for a second Brexit referendum – in fact resigned from his brother’s Cabinet last month, saying he was “torn between family loyalty and the national interest.”

Jo then asked whether Parliament would have a proper role in the process.

“I thank my right Honorable friend and brother very much for what he said,” Boris Johnson said, reassuring Jo that Parliament would have a role.

Boris Johnson has started pitching his Brexit deal to MPs in the House of Commons, repeating his frequent claim that passing the bill tonight will help “get Brexit done and move our country on.”

If the plan passes, Johnson says the country can “de-escalate those no-deal preparations immediately.”

“If we do this deal, if we pass this deal and the legislation that enables it, we can turn the page and allow this country and this Parliament to begin to heal and unite,” he adds.

The reality may be quite different – if the bill passes, it’s already clear that there will be new divisions over what happens when the transition period ends.

MPs have started debating Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement, ahead of a vote tonight that will indicate whether there is support for the pact in principle.

There’ll be around seven hours of debate before we get to that point, though. Keep following this page for live updates of all the important moments.

Most of the 21 Conservative MPs expelled from the party by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in September are expected to back his bill and proposed Brexit timetable later today.

But Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons and Johnson ally, seems to be inadvertently tempting some of them to go back on that decision.

Ed Vaizey didn’t seem happy with how Rees-Mogg dismissed concerns about the shortened timetable on Twitter.

Juncker shares a laugh with Brexit foe Nigel Farage in the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the EU Commission, spoke in the European Parliament earlier as his term comes to an end. Ursula von der Leyen will take up the role on November 2.

Juncker noted that he’s spent a lot of his time in the position talking about one topic.

“In truth, it has pained me to spend so much of this mandate dealing with Brexit when I have thought of nothing less than how this union could do better for its citizens,” he said.

“A waste of time and a waste of energy,” Juncker added.

Hold on just a little bit longer, Jean-Claude. The votes in Parliament over the next three days could wrap up Brexit. Or at least this stage of it. For now. And then again, they could not.

“I will always regret the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the Union. But at least we can look at ourselves in the eye and say that we have done all in our power to make sure that this departure is orderly,” Juncker added.

Much of the debate over Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill has focused on what happens at the end of the transition period – the period running to December 2020 in which much of the status quo will remain in place.

It was designed to give the UK and the EU time to strike a trade deal and other agreements, but such pacts take years to negotiate and it’s unlikely one can be reached so quickly.

That’s why opposition MPs have been warning that the current deal could lead to, in essence, a no-deal Brexit in 14 months’ time.

So Nick Boles, a leader in the ex-Tory, anti-no-deal brigade, has just announced he’s tabled an amendment for debate later today seeking to force a government to automatically extend the transition period if it can’t reach a deal in the intervening time (unless Parliament votes to the contrary).

The amendment follows hours of reported negotiations between Boles and his fellow independents and Downing Street.

And while it could mean those independents support Johnson’s timetable, it could cost him favor with the hardline Tories on the other side who are keen to keep a no-deal split on the table in 2020 and beyond.

Donald Tusk has tweeted after speaking in the European Parliament this morning.

The EU Council President said he has “no doubt that we should treat the British request” for a three-month Brexit extension “in all seriousness.”

Tusk had previously confirmed that Johnson’s efforts to water down his own request made no difference. The Prime Minister sent an unsigned photocopy of the letter alongside another suggesting the EU disregard it, but it doesn’t change the fact that he formally requested a Brexit extension.

Boris Johnson’s push to get his Brexit plan through Parliament begins in a couple of hours.

The first hurdle is the second reading of Johnson’s Brexit deal. A debate will begin at 12:30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. ET) and the vote will take place around 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) Its results will show whether the Commons supports Johnson’s Brexit plan in principle, but it won’t make Brexit a done deal by any stretch. You can look at CNN’s analysis of whether Johnson has the votes below, but it looks like the bill will scrape through.

Immediately afterwards (should Johnson win that vote), there’s another vote on the government’s planned timetable for the rest of the week – and that’s where it could get harder for Downing Street.

The government wants to ram its Brexit bill through all of its stages in the House of Commons this week, and push it on to the House of Lords for approval as quickly as possible. By contrast, the last big EU upheaval, the Lisbon Treaty, was pored over in 25 sittings over five months.

It’s possible that the government could lose this vote. If it does, the whole timetable would be thrown into chaos and Johnson may be forced to take advantage of the extension to the Brexit process that he reluctantly requested from EU on Sunday.

Or, the Prime Minister could abandon the legislation altogether and seek a general election in an effort to resolve the mess.

We still don’t know the answer to this question, because Speaker John Bercow blocked a vote on the UK Prime Minister’s Brexit deal on Monday.

But we will get a sense of the level of support for the deal in Parliament today, when the first vote is held on the detailed legislation that turns it into law.

That vote will be on what is confusingly known as the bill’s second reading. So which way will it go? CNN has attempted to estimate the level of support for Johnson’s deal, based on information on how lawmakers voted on Saturday, their public statements, and other reports in other credible media sources.

For the deal: Johnson can count on the support of the 287 voting Conservative lawmakers, including 28 hardline Brexiteers who never voted for his predecessor’s deal. He also has the support of 20 independent Conservatives, at least nine Labour MPs, and at least four independents – including one, John Woodcock, who appears to have changed his mind. That takes him to 320 – but in any vote, two MPs from this bloc would be nominated as tellers (counters of the votes), so that means he has 318 actual votes behind him.

Against the deal: Opposing Johnson are 231 Labour MPs, 35 members of the Scottish National Party, 19 Liberal Democrats, 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs, five members of The Independent Group, 4 Welsh nationalists, three independent Conservatives and one Green MP. Another seven independent MPs would be likely to vote against the deal. That’s a total of 315. Remove two tellers and you get a final tally of 313.

Three Labour MPs and one independent Northern Ireland unionist remain uncommitted, but are leaning towards supporting the deal.

Jacob Rees-Mogg in the House of Commons Monday. Parliament TV

Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, told lawmakers that the government hopes all Brexit legislation will be wrapped up by Thursday.

By British parliamentary standards, that’s breakneck speed.

The legislation, which was published on Monday night, is more than 100 pages long and fiendishly complicated.

Three days is not a great deal of time at all to consider such complex legislation, and we can be sure that some lawmakers opposed to Brexit will try and frustrate its progress.

The government wants to get everything done by October 31, so it can stick to Boris Johnson’s promise to get Brexit done by that date, do or die. But the government has already been forced by law to ask for an extension to the Brexit process until January 31 – and it may find out that it will need some of that time, after all.

See what’s planned, below:

The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill was published Monday night in all its glory, totalling 110 pages, on Parliament’s website. It’s the piece of legislation that will enact Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deal.

Some lawmakers have argued that there is insufficient time to scrutinize the bill, after the government announced it hopes to wrap everything up by Thursday.

You can read the full text here, where it’s been published online:

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vision for Brexit will see its first big parliamentary test today, when lawmakers vote on his new Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) in what’s confusingly called the “second reading.”

Crunch day for the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan was delayed yet again on Monday, after the Speaker of the House of Commons refused the government’s request to hold a meaningful vote on it.

It was the second time in three days that Johnson’s plans were scuppered.

A historic sitting of Parliament soured Saturday after lawmakers deferred a decision on Johnson’s deal, making it conditional on the associated legislation passing all its stages in the UK Parliament.

It was a stunning blow for the Prime Minister, who was riding high after negotiating a new deal with the EU that few thought he could pull off.

But Brexit isn’t over yet. On Tuesday, Britain will – for the first time – get a feeling for what level of support Johnson’s bill has in Parliament.

Read more about where things stand, here:

Related Coverage: It’s another crunch week for Brexit (no, we really mean it this time)