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Government likely to have enough MP numbers to pass Brexit bill, report says

By Oliver Haill

Date: Wednesday 07 Dec 2016

Government likely to have enough MP numbers to pass Brexit bill, report says

(ShareCast News) - The House of Commons is likely to vote for the UK to leave the European Union, according to calculations of parliamentary voting intentions.
Although the government is fighting a parliamentary vote in the Supreme Court, there are sufficient Members of Parliament who have either stated they want to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to trigger the formal two-year exit-negotiating process, or are obliged to vote with the government.

While the government needs 322 votes to guarantee a winning vote, Reuters calculated that 302 MPs of various hues would vote for the triggering of Article 50, with a further 73 MPs having said they would abstain or that they respect the outcome of the referendum and so may vote for the Brexit bill.

Last month it was reported by the BBC that the government has drawn up a three-line piece of legislation that it believes is so tightly worded as to make it near-impossible for objecting MPs to amend or add conditions.

With Prime Minister Theresa May having set March as the deadline for triggering Article 50, the government would fast-track the bill up to the House of Lords, which the government anticipates will wave it through.

On Tuesday, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Britain will in fact have only 18 months to extricate itself from the bloc.

Barnier said that he was aiming for a deal by October 2018, giving six months for approval by the remaining 27 member states, the European Parliament and the UK.

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