Theresa May has said MPs will not get a vote on Brexit because to “second guess” the British people would be “unacceptable”.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said it was “absolutely necessary” for the MPs to scrutinise the “process” of leaving the EU but that MPs should not be given a vote.
He said: “Parliament is of course going to debate and scrutinise that process as it goes on. That is absolutely necessary and the right thing to do.
“But, having a second vote, or a vote to second-guess the will of the British people is not an acceptable way forward.”
MPs must get vote on ‘hard Brexit’ says Miliband
Conservative MP Stephen Phillips has demanded an urgent debate on whether the terms of Brexit are discussed in Parliament before the negotiations with the EU formally begin.
He accused the Prime Minister of adopting a “fundamentally undemocratic, unconstitutional” approach to leaving the the EU.
In a letter to House of Commons speaker John Bercow he wrote: “I and many others did not exercise our vote in the referendum so as to restore the sovereignty of this Parliament only to see what we regarded as the tyranny of the European Union replaced by that of a government that apparently wishes to ignore the view of the house on the most important issue facing the nation.”
He added that the Government has “no authority or mandate to adopt a negotiating position without reference to the wishes of the house and those of the British people expressed through their elected representatives.”
Mr Phillips’ intervention is significant because he campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union.
MPs from both sides have been increasing pressure on Mrs May for a Commons vote on the terms of Brexit.
Former Conservative ministers Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan, both remain campaigners, have joined with the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman Nick Clegg and former Labour leader Ed Miliband calling for MPs to have their say.
Mrs Morgan told Sky’s Murnaghan programme: “There are a lot of us that feel it would be extraordinary – given that the Brexit vote was about the sovereignty of Parliament, about making our own laws, taking back control – for Parliament not to have a big say in the Brexit negotiations.”
She said that the Conservatives had been elected on a manifesto that very clearly stated the UK “would say yes” to the single market.
Brexit Secretary David Davis is on Monday afternoon expected to give a statement in the House of Commons on Article 50 and the Great Repeal Bill that will transfer all EU laws into British law so the Government can then decide what to ditch and what to keep.
Mrs May, who is in Copenhagen meeting her Danish counterpart, said in a joint statement that she was hoping for a “smooth” departure.
She said she expected to “be able to guarantee the legal right of EU nationals already in the UK so long as British nationals living Europe receive – in countries who are member states of the EU – the same treatment.”
Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said: “We should aim for a friendly divorce.”
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