Labour to force binding Commons vote on sharing the Brexit impact studies with key committee
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Labour will force a binding vote in the House of Commons tomorrow
(Wednesday 1 November) requiring Ministers to hand over the 58
studies that have been carried out about the economic impact of
Brexit to a Parliamentary select committee. The debate comes
amidst growing criticism about the Government’s refusal to publish
any details about its analysis of the impact of Britain’s exit from
the European Union on 88 per cent of the economy. Labour
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Labour will force a binding vote in the House of Commons tomorrow (Wednesday 1 November) requiring Ministers to hand over the 58 studies that have been carried out about the economic impact of Brexit to a Parliamentary select committee.
The debate comes amidst growing criticism about the Government’s refusal to publish any details about its analysis of the impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union on 88 per cent of the economy.
Labour has been calling for transparency in the Brexit process since the referendum, and repeatedly called for greater transparency of the Government’s own impact assessments.
Earlier this month a letter signed by 120 MPs called on the Brexit Secretary to publish his Department’s Brexit impact assessments. Former Tory Cabinet Minister, Dominic Grieve, has also called on the papers to be published.
Keir Starmer, Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, will call on Theresa May to stand by her promise to provide “certainty and clarity” over the Brexit process and protect Parliamentary sovereignty.
Labour’s motion will use an ancient, but still effective, Parliamentary procedure that gives the House of Commons the power to require Ministers to release Government papers to Parliament. Unlike typical opposition day debates, the motion, if passed, will be binding on the Government.
Labour is demanding the papers be released to the House of Commons’ Brexit Select Committee which would then have the right to review the materials and determine what information is put in the public domain. If the Government oppose the motion tomorrow they are saying that the Brexit Select Committee, which has a Conservative majority, cannot be trusted with the impact assessments.
Keir Starmer MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, said:
“This debate is about transparency and accountability. Ministers cannot keep withholding vital information from Parliament about the impact of Brexit on jobs and the economy.
“Labour recognises the importance of protecting the Government’s negotiating position with the European Union. However, that does not give Ministers the right to impose a blanket ban on publishing any information whatsoever about the economic impact of Brexit.
“At the start of the negotiations, Theresa May said everyone needed certainty during the Brexit process and that the vote to leave was a vote for Parliament to take back control. If those words meant anything at all, then she should stop side-lining Parliament and give MPs the information they need to properly hold the Government to account in what are undoubtedly the most important negotiations since the Second World War.”
Ends
Notes to editors
Exiting the EU: sectoral impact assessments That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the list of sectors analysed under the instruction of Her Majesty’s Ministers, and referred to in the Answer of 26 June 2017 to Question 239, be laid before this House and that the impact assessments arising from those analyses be provided to the Committee on Exiting the European Union.
“Each House has the power to call for the production of papers by means of a motion for a return. A return from the Privy Council or from departments headed by a Secretary of State is called for by means of an humble Address to the Sovereign; a return from elsewhere, such as a department not headed by a Secretary of State, is sought directly by means of an order of the House.
“The power to call for papers was frequently exercised until about the middle of the nineteenth century. It is rarely resorted to in modern circumstances since much of the information previously sought in this way is now produced in Command Papers or in Act Papers, or in response to questions. However, the power has a continuing importance since it is regularly delegated to select committees, thus enabling them to send for papers and records (see pp 818–819).
“In the Commons the procedure also survives in the form of ‘Motions for Unopposed Returns’ (see p 352) for particular documents which the Minister responsible for the government department concerned wishes to make public (hence they are ‘unopposed’) but in respect of which the protection of statute afforded by an order of the House for printing or other publication is sought.51 Certain annual returns are, by custom, also presented to the House in the form of returns to orders.52
“The power to send for papers by means of a motion for unopposed return extends to papers which are in the possession of Ministers or which Ministers have the authority to obtain. Papers should be ordered only on subjects which are of public or official character. In the case of a select committee with power to send for papers and records there is no restriction on its power to require the production of papers by private bodies or individuals, provided that such papers are relevant to the committee’s work as defined by its order of reference (see pp 805–806, 818–819).”
“The first objective is crucial. We will provide certainty wherever we can.
“We are about to enter a negotiation. That means there will be give and take. There will have to be compromises. It will require imagination on both sides. And not everybody will be able to know everything at every stage.
“But I recognise how important it is to provide business, the public sector, and everybody with as much certainty as possible as we move through the process.”
She added:
“Our second guiding principle is to build a stronger Britain.
“That means taking control of our own affairs, as those who voted in their millions to leave the European Union demanded we must.” https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-governments-negotiating-objectives-for-exiting-the-eu-pm-speech
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