EU Exit: Article 50

Wayne David Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Barclay]

That is a question for Parliament. It is for Parliament to decide what it does or does not do. My role as a Minister is to answer on behalf of the Government. That is what I am doing and it is the Government’s clear policy—it has not changed; I say that again—that we will not revoke. The question for Opposition Members is: are they potentially going to look to revoke article 50? That is what people want to know, particularly, as the hon. Member for Vauxhall alluded to, those people who voted for a Labour manifesto that said that it would honour the referendum result.

[Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

If the European Council unilaterally decided to say that it wanted to extend the implementation period for article 50, would the Government automatically oppose that?

[Stephen Barclay]

Again, we have covered this several times. The Court case dealt with the issue of revocation; it did not deal with the issue of extension. Extension requires the consent of the other EU27 countries. That is an unchanged position from the Court. It is outside the jurisdiction of this case.