Politics

Boris Johnson Brexit law: Will Boris make Brexit 2020 legally impossible to block?


As MPs begin the swearing-in process at Westminster on Tuesday, Boris Johnson’s team is working on amending the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) so the Brexit transition period must end on December 31, 2020, and there will be no request to the EU for a further extension. The transition can currently be extended by mutual agreement for up to two years.

Ministers are expected to debate and vote on the amended WAB on Friday – if it passes, it will be illegal for the UK to request an extension to the transition period.

A Downing Street source said: “Our manifesto made clear that we will not extend the implementation period and the new withdrawal agreement bill will legally prohibit Government agreeing to any extension.”

Senior Cabinet Minister Michael Gove insisted both the UK and the EU had “committed themselves to making sure that we have a deal” by the end of 2020.

He also promised Parliament would be able to scrutinise the Withdrawal Agreement Bill “in-depth”.

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Liberal Democrat interim leader Sir Ed Davey said: “The only way Johnson can meet the December 2020 timetable is by giving up all his previous promises to Leave voters and agreeing to all the demands of the EU.”

With a majority of 80 following Thursday’s general election, Mr Johnson is expected to get the bill into law with few changes in time for the UK to end its EU membership on 31 January.

The Government will then have until the end of the transition period on 31 December to negotiate a free trade agreement with Brussels before the trade relationship defaults to World Trade Organization (WTO) terms.

Senior EU figures, including the bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, are sceptical that a deal can be agreed within that time.

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Mr Gove said workers’ rights would be “safeguarded” in separate legislation.

He said the Government wanted to make sure the Withdrawal Agreement Bill passes through Parliament “cleanly and clearly”.

But shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Government would “sacrifice our basic rights and certainty for business at the altar of turning the UK into a Trump-supporting tax haven”.

And Labour’s Barry Gardiner said his party would be less likely to support the bill if clauses on workers’ rights and the environment were removed.



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