You may have been slightly puzzled by my column last week seeking to predict what MPs would say about the Bus Services Bill during its Commons Second Reading – which I said had taken place the day before.
As we now know, the Second Reading was not on 31 January as my column had assumed – it’s been delayed until after the February parliamentary recess thanks to the introduction of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill.
This has thrown normal parliamentary business into a degree of chaos. Still, let’s see if what said last week about the likely content of the debate, when it eventually happens, holds good.
Meanwhile, what are we to make of the Second Reading debate on the ‘EU Bill’? One of the most important constitutional debates of our time, it is also one of the shortest Bills ever introduced into parliament.
Its two brief Clauses run to a mere six lines, yet contain some of the most important words parliament has ever debated.
As expected, its Second Reading was passed with a thumping majority of 498 to 114.
It was not, in my view, a debate of great quality, lacking as it did those rousing pieces of passionate oratory that parliamentarians can sometimes rise to when debating great matters of state. It was all rather dull.
What is much more interesting is how MPs voted. So while the Conservative Party has traditionally been split asunder by the EU issue, the party collectively backed the Second Reading – with the sole exception of the passionate Europhile, Ken Clarke, but his defiance of the party whip hardly matters these days and came as no surprise.
It is now the Labour party that is in disarray on how to respond to the electorate’s decision to leave the EU.
In total 47 Labour MPs – a massive one-in-four of the parliamentary party – defied Jeremy Corbyn’s instruction to back the Bill.
Of these, 17 MPs held frontbench roles, including Labour’s spokesman on buses Daniel Zeichner.
Jeremy Corbyn’s authority over his party is now, surely, in tatters. I don’t see how you can have a rebellion of this scale on a matter such as this, and still hold any authority. Goodness, even Diane Abbott, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s most loyal and passionate supporters did not even vote – apparently citing a migraine. “Not tonight Jeremy!”
So, the first irrevocable step has been taken to trigger the UK’s departure from the EU. There is still much debate to be had on the Bill, with over 100 amendments already tabled to it by MPs, and the Bill has yet to be debated in the Lords. But we are now most firmly in the EU departure lounge.
