MPS could be given a vote on the final deal to leave the European Union, Whitehall sources have indicated, as the UK Government was accused by the SNP of creating a “dog’s Brexit”.
Parliamentary battle lines are being drawn over whether or not Westminster should have a direct vote on the terms of the Brexit deal.
MPs from across the political spectrum are worried that the voice of Parliament will be ignored and the views of MPs and peers “sidelined” during the two-year process. The biggest fear among some is that the UK Government will blithely jettison Britain’s membership of the European single market.
Read more: SNP in lobbying row after backing Heathrow expansion
Pro-Leave Conservative backbencher Stephen Phillips said that the use by Theresa May’s Government of prerogative powers to push a deal through without parliamentary approval would amount to "tyranny".
While a senior Government insider made clear MPs would not have a say on how Brexit negotiations were handled, he said there might still be a parliamentary vote on the "final" deal when the process is completed by summer 2019.
In a Commons statement, David Davis, the Brexit secretary, insisted the referendum vote for Brexit was "clear, overwhelming and unarguable" and "no-one should seek to find ways to thwart the will of the people".
He stressed how there would be multiple parliamentary debates and statements in the coming months and years on leaving the EU; he pointed out that a special Brexit committee was being established to scrutinise the UK Government’s approach.
Yet he told MPs there was a big difference between "accountability and micro-management".
Read more: SNP in lobbying row after backing Heathrow expansion
He appeared to indicate that the Commons would have a vote if the two-year negotiations ended in a new treaty with the other 27 EU states, telling MPs: "Naturally, I want this House to be engaged throughout and we will observe the constitutional and legal precedents that apply to any new treaty on a new relationship with the EU. Indeed, my whole approach is about empowering this place."
Dismissing talk of a soft or a hard Brexit, the secretary of state made clear what Britain wanted was the "most open, barrier-free access to the European market".
Sir Keir Starmer, his Labour shadow, said that despite the Tory Government saying it wanted Brexit to see a return of sovereignty to the institutions of the UK, it was seeking to “draw up negotiating terms, negotiate and reach a deal without any parliamentary approval”.
"That,” he argued, “is not making Parliament sovereign, that is sidelining Parliament and that is why Labour is calling for a vote on the basic terms proposed by the Government before Article 50 is invoked."
Stephen Gethins for the SNP denounced what he called was the UK Government’s “frankly irresponsible failure” to provide details about its Brexit plans, saying it was already having an impact and noted how the Fraser of Allander Institute calculated that Scotland alone could lose up to 80,000 jobs because of Brexit.
“We may be no clearer on whether this is a soft Brexit or a hard Brexit but we know it is a dog’s Brexit,” declared the Fife MP.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband said: "There is clearly a mandate for Brexit from this referendum but there is no mandate for the particular form of Brexit."
Read more: SNP in lobbying row after backing Heathrow expansion
His colleague Ian Murray accused the UK Government of allowing other EU member countries to be involved in negotiations but not British MPs.
Scottish Labour’s Westminster spokesman told Mr Davis: "What you've said today is, of the 28 current members of the European Union, 27 sovereign parliaments will get a say but not this one."
Nick Clegg, the former Liberal Democrat leader, asked: "On the basis of what constitutional principle do you believe that the Prime Minister can now arrogate to herself the exclusive right to interpret what Brexit means, impose it upon the country, rather than protect the rightful role of scrutiny and approval of this House?"
Mr Davis replied: "Here we go again. We cannot tell the difference between accountability and micro-management. It really is as simple as that."
His Tory colleague Iain Duncan Smith urged the Brexit secretary to "get on with the process and don't listen to those who really want to bog it down and never let it happen".
The Commons exchanges came as the Prime Minister visited Denmark and the Netherlands in the latest round of talks with counterparts from the remaining 27 EU states.
Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Mrs May his country wanted a "friendly divorce" between the EU and UK, which would "balance rights and obligations".
The PM indicated she was hoping to have Copenhagen's support in negotiations on access to the single market, saying both Britain and Denmark "firmly agree" on free trade.
Mrs May, who said Britain wanted a “smooth and orderly Brexit,” is due to visit Madrid on Thursday for talks with her Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy.
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