The government won the ‘meaningful vote’ by 319 to 303 votes in parliament on Wednesday. The ‘meaningful vote’ has been a highly contested issue over the past week as it would determine whether MPs would have the power to stop the UK from leaving the EU without a secured plan by the 21st of January 2019.
This issue was lead by former attorney general Dominic Grieve last week when he stated that he wanted Parliament to have a greater say in the Brexit Bill decisions.
However, this was forgotten when Brexit Secretary and Tory MP David Davis suggested a last-minute compromise to satisfy both parties. He stated that an official ministerial statement would be released on Thursday to give the speaker John Bercow the power to decide Parliament would get the meaningful vote.
This was accepted, even by the Tory rebels.
Leader of the internal rebellion, Dominic Grieve, has stated that the “sovereignty” of Parliament has been finally recognised.
“We’ve managed to reach a compromise without breaking the government – and I think some people don’t realise we were getting quite close to that. I completely respect the view of my colleagues who disagree, but if we can compromise we can achieve more.” said Grieve.
