Burnham-On-Sea’s MP James Heappey has backed the Prime Minister on her controversial Brexit plan and told fellow MPs that there’s “been enough disagreement and dithering” and that now the government should deliver it.
Mr Heappey says: “It’s been a pretty fraught week in Westminster and I know from my mailbag that many of you have been following events closely. I know too that for many who voted to leave the EU, the deal that the Prime Minister is proposing seems not to be the Brexit that you thought we were heading for.”
“However for three reasons, I’d argue that this is the most realistic Brexit that we can achieve within the current Parliament and that it does meet the terms that the PM had set out in her Lancaster House speech.”
“Firstly, there’s the reality that there are two votes that matter here. The referendum in which we voted to leave and then the General Election in which the Prime Minister did not win the majority needed to push through Brexit entirely on her own terms.”
“If the PM was to pursue a harder version of Brexit, the anti-Brexit MPs would almost certainly amend the Trade Bill and thus force us to remain within the Customs Union.”
“Secondly, we are leaving the EU. With that we are leaving the jurisdiction of the ECJ, we’re not accepting free movement of people and we’ll have the ability to make trade deals wherever in the world we choose. Which is exactly what the PM promised.”
“And finally, Parliament becomes truly sovereign again which means a future Parliament could choose to move away from a common rulebook on goods if it thought that the right thing to do.”
“So this is the Brexit the PM had been promising but also one that is likely to find support within Parliament and therefore have a chance of succeeding.”
“There’s been enough disagreement and dithering. We now have a plan. We should get on with delivering it.”
