Whilst yesterday evening’s vote by the House of Commons to reject the proposed Withdrawal Agreement in its current form was disappointing, I fully respect the outcome and look forward to hearing how the Prime Minister plans to move forward with Brexit preparations when she returns to make a Statement to Parliament on Monday.
For me, nothing less than an agreement which ends the free movement of people, in addition to returning full control over our money and our laws is acceptable, either to myself or to the majority of the people of Erewash who voted to leave in the referendum in June 2016.
In addition, I am still fully committed to ensuring that the UK can end its membership of the European Union on 29th March at 11:00pm, as set down in law.
As the dust settles, two things are clear from last night. The first is that the European Union must now listen to the concerns expressed by Parliament, specifically over the Northern Ireland backstop arrangement, and seek to address them if they are to avoid the UK leaving without a deal in March.
The second is that Labour has no intention of delivering on the will of the British people. Instead they will continue to pursue a cynical plan to exploit the situation to either:
- Collapse the Government and hold a General Election
- Hold a ‘Peoples Vote’ because they do not trust the original decision made by the British people
- Keep the UK in the Customs Union which would require us to continue paying vast sums of money to the EU and retain free movement, whilst also having no say over the laws and regulation being imposed on our Country from Brussels
This now makes Labour the biggest single threat to delivering Brexit and so I will continue to oppose them at every opportunity in the best interests of my Constituents. This fight begins again today when I support the Government in the Confidence Motion that has been tabled.