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    The independent thinks it's like this: Archived Message

    Posted by CJ on October 20, 2019, 2:56 pm, in reply to "Wot happened yesterday?"

    https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/politics-explained/brexit-news-latest-letwin-amendment-explained-delay-extension-deal-a9162786.html

    "

    The amendment passed by the House of Commons today activates a legal requirement for Boris Johnson to ask Brussels for an extension to the Brexit process, meaning he risks missing his target of taking the UK out of the EU by 31 October.

    It was deployed by opponents of a no-deal Brexit as an insurance policy to ensure Mr Johnson cannot crash the UK out this month, in a dramatic demonstration of MPs’ lack of trust in the prime minister.

    And he immediately demonstrated his determination to resist, telling the House of Commons that he will not negotiate a delay to Brexit with the EU.

    Tabled by former Conservative cabinet minister Sir OIiver Letwin, the amendment withholds MPs’ approval of the prime minister’s Brexit deal until legislation to ratify it has completed its passage through parliament.

    As this prevents Mr Johnson from winning a so-called “meaningful vote” on the deal by the end of the day, it effectively triggers a legal requirement for him to request an extension to the end of January 2020.

    Enshrined in the European Union Withdrawal (No 2) Act – known as the Benn Act after its sponsor Hilary Benn – this provision states that the PM must write to Brussels unless he has secured parliamentary approval for a deal – or, rather more unlikely, for a no-deal outcome – by 19 October.

    However, Sir Oliver and many of his fellow Tory exiles – expelled from the party over a previous Brexit rebellion – say that they back Mr Johnson’s deal and want it to pass. So why have they forced through a delay of as much as three months?

    The answer lies in their fear that granting the deal approval now would paradoxically open up a two-week window in which a no-deal Brexit once more becomes possible.

    The Benn Act, designed to block no deal, ceases to have effect as soon as the meaningful vote has passed.

    But in order to implement his deal, Mr Johnson must also have it ratified in parliament by passing a withdrawal agreement bill (WAB) through both houses.
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    Due to be tabled early next week, the bill would have had just 10 days, if the Letwin amendment had failed, to reach the statute book before Brexit day at the end of this month.

    This would have required the legislation to be completed at breakneck speed in a far shorter time than for previous international treaties of similar significance.

    If the bill had then failed to pass by Halloween – or been sabotaged by amendments from hardline Brexiteers or even ditched by Mr Johnson himself – the UK would by default have crashed out of the EU without a deal when the current extension period ends at 11pm on 31 October.

    If the EU now approves an extension, the threat of no deal definitively falls away, allowing MPs to scrutinise the bill and debate its merits in full before deciding whether to grant it their approval.

    Mr Johnson remains determined to meet his Halloween deadline, and a battle is expected early next week over a government business motion to ensure the legislative process is completed within his timetable.
    [Johnson.jpg]
    Johnson has already shown resistance to the newly enshrined act (PRU/AFP/Getty)

    Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated that the government aims to retable its motion on Monday, though it was unclear whether this gambit will be accepted by speaker John Bercow.

    If that fails, Mr Johnson is likely to attempt effectively to convert the second reading vote in the Commons later in the week into a parliamentary endorsement of his deal, by writing into the text of the bill that its passage amounts to the “meaningful vote” by MPs demanded by law.

    If the business motion fails, debate on the WAB can be expected to drag on for weeks, with no certainty that the final decisive vote will come before Christmas.

    And as it makes its way through parliament, there will be plenty of opportunities for MPs and peers on both sides of the debate to attempt to amend its provisions, including by making the deal subject to a confirmatory referendum of the British people.    "

    -whatever that amounts to??!!

    cheers

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