Burnham-On-Sea’s MP voted for Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal in tonight’s crunch Parliament vote.
The “meaningful vote” took place in the House of Commons and the Prime Minister lost by 230 votes. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has tabled a vote of no confidence in the government, which could trigger a general election tomorrow.
MP James Heappey said on social media this morning (Tuesday): “Today I’ll be voting for the PM’s deal. I’ll support any amendments that might help colleagues to vote for the deal too.”
“But I will absolutely not vote for anything that could lead to no Brexit. To do so would be to break faith with the decision of my constituents & our country.”
Burnham-On-Sea’s MP recently admitted that the draft withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU is “not perfect” and “not what I’d hoped for” but he would be supporting it.
Burnham-On-Sea’s MP defended the Brexit deal at a heated town meeting attended by 200 residents on November 29th.
He said “crashing out” of the EU with no Brexit deal would create a situation that would be “quite brutal”.
And Burnham’s MP added that holding a second referendum would be “a huge betrayal” to voters.
Mr Heappey also made an impassioned speech to Parliament during a debate over Theresa May’s Brexit deal in December.
During the speech, below, he also infamously said: “I left work last night embarrassed to call myself an MP”.
In the debate in the House of Commons, he criticised MPs for ‘digging our trenches deeper and refusing to find compromise’.
In the June 2016 EU referendum, residents in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge voted to leave the EU.
Across Sedgemoor, there were 41,869 votes to leave and 26,545 votes to remain. Several polling stations in Burnham and Highbridge reported 70% turnouts, far higher than previous General Elections.
