{"id":139706,"date":"2018-06-11T18:42:52","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T18:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/theresa-may-tells-mps-not-to-undermine-uks-brexit-negotiations\/"},"modified":"2018-06-11T18:42:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T18:42:52","slug":"theresa-may-tells-mps-not-to-undermine-uks-brexit-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/theresa-may-tells-mps-not-to-undermine-uks-brexit-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"Theresa May tells MPs not to undermine UK&#8217;s Brexit negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Theresa May\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/10E88\/production\/_101965296_mediaitem101965295.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  EPA<figcaption>Image caption                                      The PM wants to avoid defeats ahead of a crucial summit of EU leaders later this month                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">The UK&#039;s negotiating position will be undermined if MPs defeat the government in key votes on its Brexit bill, Theresa May has told Tory MPs.<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister told backbenchers to &quot;think about the message Parliament will send to the European Union&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>She wants to overturn a series of amendments made by the House of Lords.<\/p>\n<p>A compromise proposal is being worked on which could help Mrs May avoid defeat on whether the UK should seek to stay in a customs union with the EU.<\/p>\n<p>The move, being brokered by former Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin, came after rebel MPs suggested they have sufficient numbers to threaten the government and wanted more concessions.<\/p>\n<p>At a specially convened meeting in Parliament, Mrs May told her MPs they &quot;must think about the message Parliament will send to the European Union this week&quot;. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;I am trying to negotiate the best deal for Britain. I am confident I can get a deal that allows us to strike our own trade deals while having a border with the EU which is as frictionless as possible.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;But if the Lords amendments are allowed to stand, that negotiating position will be undermined.&quot;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Flashpoints ahead for the Brexit bill<\/li>\n<li>Why is the customs union so important?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>A big week for Brexit<\/h2>\n<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p0654bjw.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionWhat is the EU customs union?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After Mrs May has addressed her MPs on Monday evening, there will be two days of votes on the EU Withdrawal Bill on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The bill is the key legislation the government needs to pass to make its Brexit strategy work.<\/p>\n<p>But the House of Lords has put forward changes to it which would require a different approach in some key areas.<\/p>\n<p>This week the government wants to kill off most of these changes - but numbers in the House of Commons are finely balanced, with the Conservatives needing the help of Northern Ireland&#039;s Democratic Unionist Party to get a majority.<\/p>\n<p>The two amendments set to be most tricky for the government are one on Tuesday, which gives Parliament a decisive vote over the final Brexit deal, and another on Wednesday which instructs Mrs May to negotiate a customs union with the EU.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston told BBC Radio 4&#039;s Today programme she was &quot;minded&quot; to vote against the government on the first of these, which calls for Parliament to get a &quot;meaningful vote&quot; on any final deal struck between the UK and EU.<\/p>\n<p>She also called for &quot;further concessions&quot; from the government on the customs union amendment.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative backbench MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said he thought the government would win the day.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on LBC, Mr Rees-Mogg, who chairs the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, predicted &quot;there will be unity, it won&#039;t be perfect&quot; but that it would be &quot;enough to get the bill through&quot;.<\/p>\n<h2>The key dates ahead on Brexit<\/h2>\n<p>Please upgrade your browser to view this content.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/newsslabs\/bot-brexit-roadmap-final\/assets\/project-assets\/icon-timeline-white.svg\"\/>Timeline                                                                 hide                                                                                    <\/p>\n<h2>Brexit key dates<\/h2>\n<p>                                                               Next key date?                       Show all                                              Was this timeline useful?                             Yes                             No                             Thank you for your feedback.                                                               <\/p>\n<h3>Share this timeline.<\/h3>\n<h2>What is the EU Withdrawal Bill?<\/h2>\n<p>It is the legislation aimed at ensuring the UK has a smooth transition out of the EU.<\/p>\n<p>It will repeal the European Communities Act, which took Britain into what was then the European Economic Community, meaning EU law is no longer supreme in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>And to avoid a sudden &quot;cliff edge&quot; on Brexit day, 29 March 2019, it would also convert existing EU law into UK law so the government and Parliament can decide at a later date which bits they want to keep or change.<\/p>\n<p>The bill has also become of the focus of several attempts by MPs and peers to change parts of the government&#039;s approach to Brexit.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation is now back before the House of Commons after a total of 15 defeats by the House of Lords.<\/p>\n<h2>What MPs will be voting on<\/h2>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP                                                    <\/figure>\n<p><strong>The government opposes these amendments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grant new powers to oversee changes made to EU law by the government<\/li>\n<li>Remove the precise day of Brexit from the wording of the bill<\/li>\n<li>Remove a section allowing ministers to use secondary legislation to establish when individuals can challenge the validity of retained EU law after exit<\/li>\n<li>Only let ministers use delegated powers to amend retained EU law where &quot;necessary&quot; <\/li>\n<li>Prevent ministers from using delegated powers to implement the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement<\/li>\n<li>Force the government to report on &quot;steps taken to negotiate a customs union with the EU&quot; by 31 October<\/li>\n<li>Make staying in the European Economic Area, like Norway, a &quot;negotiating objective&quot; for the UK<\/li>\n<li>Transfer the EU&#039;s Charter of Fundamental Rights - which the government says will no longer apply - into UK law<\/li>\n<li>Allow &quot;enhanced scrutiny&quot; when ministers use delegated powers to change EU employment, equality health and safety, consumer and environment rules<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The government has proposed its own version of these ones:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Give Parliament the power to decide what happens if MPs and peers reject the final Brexit deal<\/li>\n<li>Explicitly preserve cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Republic and commit to no new border arrangements without the agreement of the UK and Irish governments<\/li>\n<li>Allow people to challenge UK law if it fails to comply with the general principles of EU law<\/li>\n<li>Force ministers to maintain EU environmental principles in domestic law after Brexit<\/li>\n<li>Compel ministers to aim for a deal allowing unaccompanied child refugees to join relatives in the UK<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The government has accepted this amendment:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Allow the UK to replicate EU law made after Brexit day and continue to participate in EU agencies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>To rebel or not rebel?<\/h2>\n<p>Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington set out the government&#039;s plea to potential rebels, saying the House of Lords had tried to damage the Brexit process by changing the EU bill.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the bill is to ensure &quot;legal certainty&quot; around Brexit, and it is &quot;profoundly in our national interest&quot; that MPs do not &quot;allow hostile amendments to frustrate those essential aims&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;This week, I hope that MPs from all parties, including those Labour MPs who want to see their constituents&#039; votes in the referendum acted upon, will give the prime minister their backing,&quot; he added.<\/p>\n<p>His comments follow the claim from two senior Conservatives, Remainer Amber Rudd and Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith, that any rebellion will only play into the Labour leader&#039;s hands.<\/p>\n<p>Please upgrade your browser<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19077-brexit-glossary\/assets\/project-assets\/brexit_logo--small.png\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Your guide to Brexit jargon<\/h2>\n<p>                                                                                                                                                             Enter the word or phrase you are looking for                                                                                                                                                                                             Search                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <\/p>\n<p>Some pro-EU Tories were reported to be backing away from voting against government, over fears that a defeat could prompt a leadership contest and see Mrs May replaced by a far more hard-line Brexiteer.<\/p>\n<p>Others, such as veteran Conservative MP Ken Clarke, however, have said the prime minister is being &quot;undermined&quot; by her ministers and needs to be &quot;rescued&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Labour are urging Tory rebels to side with them in the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday with Labour&#039;s Sir Keir Starmer saying Tory rebels had a &quot;real chance to change the course of the Brexit negotiations&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>But Jeremy Corbyn&#039;s party is also divided on Brexit, with pro-EU campaigners urging him to shift policy to support staying part of the EU&#039;s single market like Norway, which is the subject of another of the Lords amendments.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, David Davis began the latest round of negotiations with his EU counterpart Michael Barnier in Brussels at a breakfast meeting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright EPAImage caption The PM wants to avoid defeats ahead of a crucial summit of EU leaders later this month The UK&#039;s negotiating position will be undermined if MPs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}