Thank you all for your emails. The Second Reading of this Bill will allow MPs to determine what sort of Brexit we should have. Many have voted against the Meaningful Votes in the House of Commons because they did not “know what sort of Brexit we would get”. The Second Reading of the (WAB) opens the way to debating the range of ways in which Parliament can deliver on the Referendum result.
Those who vote against the Second Reading will be voting against Brexit itself. MPs who stood on an election manifesto to deliver on the Referendum and who vote against the Second Reading of this legislation will be seen by voters to be breaking the promise they made at the 2017 general election.
I have made clear on previous occasions that I cannot support plans for a permanent customs union or another Referendum that tries to negate the previous result. In a parliamentary democracy it is impossible to prevent amendments and new clauses during the passage of the legislation and I am more than happy to argue the case against either of these two propositions. There are only three outcomes to the Brexit process. Either we leave with a deal, we leave without a deal or we don’t leave at all.
Whatever future relationship we want to have with the EU, we require a Withdrawal Agreement to have an orderly transition. If this legislation is blocked, then it increases the chance of either Article 50 being revoked which would be a betrayal of those who were given a guarantee in the Referendum that its result would be respected, or we will leave without a deal, which will be used by those who seek to break up the UK, as a wedge to be driven between different parts of our UK.