Parliamentary votes on Brexit

Parliamentary votes on Brexit, sometimes referred to as "meaningful votes", were the parliamentary votes under the terms of Section 13 of the United Kingdom's European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which requires the government of the United Kingdom to bring forward an amendable parliamentary motion at the end of the Article 50 negotiations between the government and the European Union in order to ratify the Brexit withdrawal agreement.[1][2]

The wording of the clause[note 1] was strongly contested by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with the Lords proposing an amendment to the bill giving further powers to parliament. When the bill returned to the Commons the Conservative government offered concessions and the Lords' proposed amendment was defeated. The bill was then passed into law on 26 June 2018.[3]

By the end of March 2019, the government had not won any of the meaningful votes. This led to a series of non-binding "indicative votes" on potential options for Brexit, and the delay of the departure date until after the 2019 general election.

  1. ^ Maer, Lucinda (19 June 2018). "2. Continuing areas of debate: 2.1 Meaningful vote" (PDF). In Maer, Lucinda (ed.). European Union (Withdrawal) Bill 2017–19: Ping Pong. Commons Briefing Papers: CBP-8345. House of Commons Library. pp. 5–9. Retrieved 7 August 2018. There are four remaining areas where the two Houses are yet to agree on the text of the Bill: Meaningful vote: the House of Lords amended the Bill on a division to require that the Government bring forward an amendable motion at the end of the Article 50 negotiations ... Of these four areas, only the 'meaningful vote' proposal was made on a division, with the Government defeated. The other three proposals were brought forward by Government Ministers. Summary.
  2. ^ "Parliament's 'meaningful vote' on Brexit". instituteforgovernment.org.uk. Institute for Government. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Ministers win key Brexit bill vote after concession". BBC News. 12 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2018.


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