The Commons voted 358 to 234 to approve Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill today and to ban any attempts to extend the transition period to after 2020. Johnson argued that he’d have a trade deal in place by then anyway but critics argue that this move now makes the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit a very real prospect.
Asides from banning any further extensions, other changes to the newly approved bill include giving UK courts the power to override European Court of Justice rulings and giving the UK government the power to repeal legislation that “now serves no purpose”, they’ve also dropped an earlier clause designed to strengthen workers’ rights.
The DUP’s Sir Jeffrey Donaldson expressed his concerns over a “major contradiction” in the bill, pointing out how, while the bill claimed to offer Northern Ireland “unfettered access” to trade in the UK, the customs arrangements actually didn’t facilitate this.
