Vote on Brexit Timetable by March Next Year

MPs are set to vote for the first time on the government’s plan to trigger Brexit by the end of March next year.

Prime Minister Theresa May agreed on Tuesday to publish her plan for leaving the EU to avoid a possible Tory rebellion and defeat in the Commons.

The government hopes that move will persuade MPs to support its schedule for starting the process of leaving, BBC reported.

The Labour party, which initiated the debate, said it would back the timetable but wanted scrutiny of Brexit plans.

Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, put forward a motion to be debated on Wednesday, with support from some on the Conservative back benches.

The party wanted to force the government to reveal its negotiating stance before formal talks with EU leaders begin.

Downing Street tabled an amendment agreeing to outline its strategy, in exchange for the MPs’ approval of the government’s timetable for triggering Article 50.

BBC political correspondent, Alex Forsyth, said the government’s agreement to publish its plan “did not commit to providing any real detail”.

The government has announced that it will accept Labour’s idea to publish a plan, of sorts, for Brexit, before Article 50 begins the legal process of the UK disentangling itself from the EU.

Some Tory MPs were set to gang up with Labour in a vote to force ministers to publish something, anything, about their plans for Brexit, against Theresa May’s wishes.

Starmer, who will lead the debate for Labour, called the amendment “a welcome and hugely significant climbdown from the government” and said his party would push for the Brexit plan to be published by January.

Conservative MP Anna Soubry, who campaigned to remain in the EU, added that the new amendment was a “significant victory”.

However, government sources would not confirm any specific form of document on any particular timetable to fit with the commitment to publish a Brexit plan, apart from saying that it would be before Article 50.

Sources also said that by accepting Labour’s amendment, the government was not agreeing to give MPs a vote before the process of leaving the EU begins.