European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Debate between Matthew Pennycook and Simon Hoare

Tuesday 12th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

I am going to make some progress.

There has been a considerable amount of debate over the past 16 months about what is meant by a “meaningful” vote. Any member of the public watching our proceedings today will struggle to understand how a vote on the draft withdrawal agreement that simply takes the form of “take it or leave it” could in any sense be genuinely meaningful. In reality, it would be anything but. It would be meaningless, not meaningful. It would be a Hobson’s choice.

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Matthew Pennycook]

I will give way one final time.

[Simon Hoare]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I put it to him gently that his proposition presupposes that the European Union would wish to re-engage in negotiations. Were there to be a meaningful vote and this House were to veto the deal, we would be likely to crash out without a deal and not deliver the pragmatic common-sense Brexit that I think he and I would like to see.

[Matthew Pennycook]

I disagree with the hon. Gentleman. Crashing out of the European Union without a deal is exactly what this amendment is designed to prevent. [Interruption.] Yes, it is.