Britain to publish Article 50 bill as May agrees to set out Brexit plan

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Britain to publish Article 50 bill as May agrees to set out Brexit plan

By Kylie MacLellan and William James

RREUTERS

 

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/Files

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said it would publish legislation on Thursday seeking parliament's approval to begin formal divorce talks with the European Union as Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to lawmakers' demands to publish her Brexit plan.

 

The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that May must give parliament a vote before she can invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, with Brexit minister David Davis promising a "straightforward" bill within days.

 

May said last week Britain would quit the EU's single market when it leaves the union, charting a course for a clean break with the world's largest trading bloc.

 

Many lawmakers said they wanted to see her Brexit plans laid out in a formal 'white paper', which sets out the government's proposals for future legislation, to facilitate greater scrutiny before a parliamentary vote on triggering Brexit.

 

"I set out that bold plan for a global Britain last week and I recognise there is an appetite in this house to see that plan set out in a white paper," May, whose government had previously declined to publish such a paper, told parliament on Wednesday.

 

"I can confirm to the house that our plan will be set out in a white paper."

 

Later her spokeswoman said the government would publish its Article 50 legislation on Thursday, but did not give any details of the likely timeframe for its progress through parliament.

 

The Institute for Government, a think tank, has predicted the earliest an Article 50 bill could pass through both houses of parliament is the end of February, but expects that early March is more likely.

 

Several opposition parties have said they will seek to amend the legislation, but the government has said it still expects to be able to stick to May's timetable of triggering Article 50 by the end of March.

 

It is not clear whether the white paper will be published and debated before the legislation is voted on. The spokeswoman said only that it would be published "in due course".

 

While lawmakers hope a white paper will force the government to give more detail on its Brexit plan, there are no rules about what it must include and any such document could simply repeat the contents of May's speech.

 

"We have set out the government's plan for negotiating our exit from the EU, our 12 objectives, we can expect it to reflect that," May's spokeswoman said.

 

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-01-26

[dunroaming]

The whole of the UK is tired of hearing about Brexit and everyone wants to just get moving on it.  I know it is one step at a time and we will have lots of conflict and arguing on the way.  The next two years are going to be a roller coaster of broken pledges and u-turns and falling out and inevitably economic turmoil.  Unfortunately the people running the show are no where near capable of bringing home the bacon!

[Retiredandhappyhere]

22 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

The whole of the UK is tired of hearing about Brexit and everyone wants to just get moving on it.  I know it is one step at a time and we will have lots of conflict and arguing on the way.  The next two years are going to be a roller coaster of broken pledges and u-turns and falling out and inevitably economic turmoil.  Unfortunately the people running the show are no where near capable of bringing home the bacon!

The part of your comment which I have highlited is merely supposition.  Theresa May has already clarified the UK's negotiating position as far as she dare without giving too much away to the EU.  Parliament will proceed to give the go-ahead for article 50 to be notified and I believe you may be surprised at how well the negotiations go once underway, as it is in all parties interests to come up with a compromise solution. It is to be expected that a hard-line position is adopted by both sides at first but all the cards are NOT in the EU's hands, as certain people would have us believe.  It is not entirely certain either that during the two year negotiating period, we will not be joined by one or two other member states also expressing a wish to leave the EU.  The planned United States of Europe with its own army is not an appealing prospect to all.

[maxtwo]

May should of got on with filling article 50 straight away.Like Trump is doing with his promises.

[Baerboxer]

44 minutes ago, maxtwo said:

May should of got on with filling article 50 straight away.Like Trump is doing with his promises.

 

She couldn't. She would have been committing treason.

[ROGER DUNN]

Just get on with it ,  one day its this , next day its that . What gets me is that the French are going to punish the UK for getting out . Why do they act so Infantile, they have short memories when the UK fought the Germans for them, now they are sleeping with them.

The UK got on fine before the EU  and will get on again without them, there are many countries that want to trade with them rather than being made to trade with who the EU tell them who they can trade with. They have to stop this influx of people going into the country and going on the Dole for the rest of their lives sucking money out of the country thanks to Merkel and the EU which she runs has made this possible for them to do .