In September, Parliament returns from its summer recess for a two-week period before the Party conference season starts.
This was a practice introduced by David Cameron in 2010 to reduce the recess periods when Parliament was not sitting. This year, the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill was a crucial debate and vote. As the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, I am involved in organising the business of the House and I would like to update readers with what happened at Parliament during this September sitting.
A very important piece of legislation that was voted on during this period was the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
This Bill – colloquially referred to as the Repeal Bill – would, if passed, enshrine all laws which originated from the European Union into UK law. This would mean that all the laws originating from the EU that we currently have would no longer be subject to our membership of the EU – as such these rights and regulations would stay in place when we leave the EU. If passed, this Bill would deliver a legal guarantee that the UK can set its own laws after we leave the EU, outside the control of the European Court of Justice. Essentially, this Bill is the first step to bringing back full sovereignty to our Parliament.
This Bill passed the second stage in the House of Commons by 326 votes to 290 – a majority of 36. No Conservative MP opposed the measure and although the Labour leadership ordered its MPs to vote against the measure, 7 Labour MPs voted in favour.
There was a lengthy debate before the vote and votes took place until around 1.00am on the morning of Tuesday, 12th September after around 8 hours of debate – in important matters such as this Bill Parliamentary business can run into very late hours.
Of course, not every piece of EU law will work perfectly when converted into UK law, which is why this Bill contains powers to make small corrections to ensure that they can operate effectively. These are called ‘Henry VIII powers’ because they allow Ministers to make changes to things without a vote in parliament, but they are not as unusual or dramatic as they sound. Whilst some opposed to the Bill have tried to claim that these powers are over-reaching, they are in-fact necessary in almost all legislation and are used very regularly – around 50% of all Bills that were passed during the last Parliament included such powers, and as the name implies they have been used by all governments for many years. They are a necessity in the modern fast-paced world to ensure that legislation keeps up to date.
Any substantive changes to current EU law will go through the usual Parliamentary processes – this Bill does what the British people voted for last year, it returns power from Brussels to Westminster. The Bill has now reached the Committee stage, where a guaranteed 64 hours of debate will take place over eight days on this important Bill, the longest time allocated for a debate on any subject in several years.
Many other issues were debated and voted on over this September sitting including the effects of Hurricane Irma on British overseas territories, and the Finance Bill which implements policies announced in the annual budget. The voting on the Finance Bill continued late into the evening as well, not concluding until around 11.00pm.