Newbury MP: 'An election has to happen'

Richard Benyon on his recent Brexit vote

“IF we debate this for three days, three weeks or three months I doubt I will hear a single original argument.”

That was the opinion of Newbury MP Richard Benyon after Parliament voted to reject a swift three-day timetable to debate Boris Johnson’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

The timetable would have allowed the agreement to be passed by today (Thursday) – enabling the UK to leave the EU with a deal on October 31.

Now the bill has been left in limbo after the Government lost the timetable vote by 308 to 322.

Mr Benyon – who had the Conservative whip removed in September after voting against the Government – expressed his disappointment that the three-day timetable was not approved.

A strong opponent of no deal, Mr Benyon voted for the Withdrawal Agreement and for the three-day timetable.

He also backed the deal in a vote on Saturday, saying: “I feel this deal is one that gives the businesses in West Berkshire – and those working for them – what they have been asking for.”

The Newbury MP voted against the Letwin Amendment.

Speaking about Tuesday’s vote, he said: “It was a bit tight but it was do-able, and I don’t mind sitting through the night to get this done.

“I believe that a very large number of my constituents are fed up with this delay and attempts by Parliament to frustrate ending this chapter of Brexit.

“The vast majority of the Withdrawal Agreement has been debated for over 500 hours over three-and-a-half years, so yes we could have scrutinised it.

“I personally believe the Government should have conceded an extra two or three days and we could be debating it now, but they didn’t.”

Mr Benyon is still optimistic that the Brexit legislation will pass through Parliament after the bill passed its second reading on Tuesday.

“That reading passed with a considerable number of 30, with a significant number of Labour MPs voting for it,” he said.

“That second reading was quite a milestone because it’s the first time in three-and-a-half years that the House of Commons has agreed on anything about Brexit, and actually agreed on the deal that the Prime Minister has negotiated.

“I voted for that because while I vehemently opposed leaving the EU with no deal, I believe that we now have a deal that can work and allows Britain to leave in an orderly fashion.”

With an extension on Brexit now looking likely, Mr Johnson suggested he might withdraw the bill and hold an early election.

Speaking yesterday (Wednesday), Mr Benyon said: “An election has to happen. Parliament is paralysed by a lack of a majority in the governing party and it may well be that a vote on a Queen’s Speech fails to pass tomorrow.

“In normal circumstances that would lead immediately to an election, but we live in strange times where the complications of the Fixed Term Parliament Act mean that bizarrely the choice of when an election happens is not in the hands of the Prime Minister but the Leader of the Opposition.

“It’s not a situation I’m pleased with at all,” he added.