{"id":29867,"date":"2019-10-18T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=29867"},"modified":"2019-10-18T12:29:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T11:29:00","slug":"super-saturday-mps-meet-tomorrow-for-brexit-crunch-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/super-saturday-mps-meet-tomorrow-for-brexit-crunch-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Super Saturday’ – MPs meet tomorrow for Brexit crunch vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image source: Britain Express<\/a><\/p>\n

In a rare and historic weekend sitting, Parliament will decide the nation’s future in Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Members of Parliament will meet tomorrow in the House of Commons in what will be the first Saturday sitting of parliament in almost 40-years.<\/p>\n

They will debate and vote on the government\u2019s new Brexit deal agreed at the European Union summit in Brussels yesterday, following talks which went late into Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

In a sitting of parliament which is referred to as \u201cSuper Saturday\u201d, MPs will decide whether to approve or reject Boris Johnson\u2019s agreement with the EU in a tense crunch vote expected to be on a \u201cknife-edge\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prime minister is confident that his deal will have the approval of most MPs.<\/p>\n

But the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party \u2013 who have a confidence and supply agreement with the Conservative minority government \u2013 say that \u201cas things stand\u201d they cannot support the deal.<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said: \u201cThey [MPs] will want to vote for it on Saturday.\u201d However, all the main opposition parties \u2013 Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish nationalists \u2013 have said they will not support the deal.<\/p>\n

DUP leader Arlene Foster described the deal as “like driving a coach and horses through the Good Friday agreement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Infographic by Scott Mathew\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

But the Telegraph<\/em> reports that Mr Johnson is seeking to regain the confidence and support of at least 11 of the 21 MPs who were expelled from the Conservative party at the beginning of September for voting in favour of the bill which then passed into law as the \u201cBenn Act\u201d.<\/p>\n

This prevents the prime minister from taking the UK out of the EU without a deal, and obliges him to apply for a three-month extension of Article 50 \u2013 in the event that the deal is not passed.<\/p>\n

Even with all Conservative MPs voting in favour of the deal, the parliamentary arithmetic does not work in Mr Johnson\u2019s favour \u2013 as the government is in a \u201cmajority\u201d of minus 41 \u2013 making it impossible for the deal to pass without a substantial number of opposition MPs voting with the government.<\/p>\n

And while it is likely that a handful of backbench Labour rebels will back the government, this would not be enough to get the deal over the line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Infographic by Scott Mathew\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Vote campaign will march thousands of people through central London tomorrow morning as the MPs debate the future of the country, calling for any deal passed by parliament to be put to the public for a confirmatory vote of whether to leave on the government\u2019s negotiated terms or to remain in the EU.<\/p>\n

Polls and surveys suggest that in the 2016 referendum, about 73% of young voters aged between 18 and 24 voted to remain in the EU.<\/p>\n

And only five of the 32 London boroughs voted to leave the EU in the referendum – including the London Borough of Hillingdon – home to the prime minister’s constituency of Uxbridge & South Ruislip.<\/p>\n

The others were Barking & Dagenham, Bexley, Havering and Sutton. A pro-Brexit group based in the capital called “Leavers of London” exists to “represent the Leave vote in London in a positive light.”<\/p>\n

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected\u00a0to impose a three-line whip on his parliamentary party to back an amendment which would see any deal which might be passed to be subject to a public vote with the option of cancelling Brexit altogether on the ballot paper.<\/p>\n

The Commons will meet at 9.30am and peers will gather in the House of Lords to debate Brexit from 10am.<\/p>\n

Words: Scott Mathew | Subbing: Rubi Hashmi\u00a0 | Featured image credit: Britain Express<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Robert Walpole image copyright National Portrait Gallery; reproduced for non-commercial use<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arthur Balfour image copyright Britannica; reproduced for non-commercial use<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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