LABOUR will oppose the UK Government’s Brexit Bill when it comes to the vote next week, the party has confirmed.
The decision was announced following a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet.
It means all the main opposition parties, including the SNP and the Liberal Democrats will oppose the flagship EU Withdrawal Bill at Second Reading, the first main Commons debate on the legislation, which begins on Thursday with a vote on Monday.
Despite Theresa May’s thin working majority – just 13, thanks to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists – it is thought that the bill will pass next week as no Tories are expected to rebel.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “Labour fully respects the democratic decision to leave the European Union, voted to trigger Article 50 and backs a jobs-first Brexit with full tariff-free access to the European single market.
“But as democrats we cannot vote for a bill that, unamended, would let government ministers grab powers from Parliament to slash people’s rights at work and reduce protection for consumers and the environment.”
He went on: “Parliament has already voted to leave the European Union but the Government’s EU Withdrawal Bill would allow Conservative ministers to set vital terms on a whim, including of Britain’s exit payment, without democratic scrutiny.
“Nobody voted in last year’s referendum to give this Conservative Government sweeping powers to change laws by the back door. The slogan of the Leave campaign was about people taking back control and restoring powers to Parliament.
“This power-grab bill would do the opposite. It would allow the Government to seize control from the Parliament that the British people have just elected,” added the spokesman.
The announcement by Labour came just hours before David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, was due to give an update on the talks with Brussels to MPs.
Downing Street has said Britain is ready to "intensify" talks with the EU amid reports that the Government is open to ripping up the proposed monthly negotiating timetable to allow continuous discussions in an effort to speed up progress.
But this suggestion has been rebuffed by the European Commission.
Magaritis Schinas, its spokesman, said the Commission continued to work to the “calendar agreed with our British partners. If there are people who say or guess or consider otherwise, you need to talk to them. We are on the agreed timetable".
Meanwhile, Mrs May's spokesman was unable to tell reporters whether or not the Prime Minister was planning an "intervention" of the kind suggested by Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit co-ordinator, by making a speech on Brexit ahead of the Conservative Party conference.
Asked whether there was indeed a speech planned for September 21, he said: "I don't recognise that date," adding on the issue of speeding up the talks: "We have a negotiation timetable; it is what it is."
Elsewhere, Jeremy Corbyn faces his own headache with the formal launch of the Labour Campaign for the Single Market this evening in central London.
The group, headed by MPs Heidi Alexander and Alison McGovern, seeks to shift Labour policy into one of unequivocal support for staying in the single market by remaining a member of the European Economic Area and customs union beyond any transition period.
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