Brexit: '˜Parliament will have final say on UK deal'

Parliament will have the 'final say' on Britain's deal to leave the EU, according to David Davis.

The Brexit Secretary gave the assurance to MPs after also insisting the number of votes held in the Commons will be “too many to count” over the next two years.

Mr Davis made the remarks following the Supreme Court’s decision to reassert the view that the Brexit process can only begin once Parliament’s approval has been sought.

Speaking in the Commons, Labour former minister Pat McFadden reminded Mr Davis of Prime Minister Theresa May’s pledge to put the final UK-EU deal to a vote in the Commons and Lords before it comes into force.

He added: “The Article 50 negotiation is not the final deal. The final deal is the future trading agreement between the UK and the EU.

“So can you confirm that Parliament will get a vote on both the Article 50 agreement and, as the Prime Minister said, the final deal - and what will happen if Parliament says no to the terms of either of these?”

Mr Davis replied: “The answer to your overall question is yes, we are standing by both of those and continue to do so.

“But the point I will reiterate to you again is that it won’t be the only votes. There will be a large number of other votes in between.

“The Labour Party can ignore it until the cows come home but the simple truth is they’re going to have many, many, many votes on many different policy areas after very extensive debate on primary legislation.

“So the answer is, Parliament will have a great influence on this process and it will have the final say.

“That’s, I think, a democracy in action.”

Yvette Cooper, Labour chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, earlier said the Government does “not have a blank cheque either from Parliament or the public” over what kind of Brexit it pursues.

She told Mr Davis: “You said there will be votes in the process.

“So can you tell us, given that the Government has said it is ruling out being in the customs union, in the common external tariff, and the common commercial policy, and you know that there are strongly held views on different sides about the impact that will have on our manufacturing industry - which will be so crucial to our future - when will you give Parliament a vote on that decision?”

Mr Davis replied: “We’re asked on one hand to tell the House what our plan is and then we’re told ‘Oh, we don’t like that so we want to have a debate or a white paper or whatever on that’.

“The simple truth ... is there will be any number of votes, I mean, too many to count in the next two years, across a whole range of issues.

“I can see, for example, the sort of issue you’re raising coming up in the Great Repeal Bill, I can see it coming up in subsequent primary legislation, maybe even in subsequent secondary legislation as well.

“So I’m quite sure there will be votes on that subject area, a number of them, in the next two years.”