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European Union Withdrawal Agreement (Public Vote) Bill 2017–19
The European Union Withdrawal Agreement (Public Vote) Bill 2017–19 was a private member's bill of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make provision for the holding of a “public vote” (referendum) in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar following the conclusion of negotiations by Her Majesty's Government and the European Union on whether to support the proposed exit deal for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union or to remain a member state of the EU. The bill was sponsored by English Labour Co-operative MP Gareth Thomas. The bill failed upon the conclusion of the parliamentary session in November 2019,[1] and withdrawal took place on 31 January 2020 without a second referendum. ProvisionsPublic voteThe Bill proposed that a “public vote” (referendum) be held in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar before 1 February 2019 on whether to support the proposed Withdrawal Agreement which would take the UK out of the European Union or reject the proposed agreement and remain a member state of the EU. The Bill would have required the Secretary of State to lay before each House of Parliament a copy of the proposed Withdrawal Agreement no later than 31 October 2018. Proposed public vote questionThe Bill stipulated the following proposed question to appear on ballot papers:
with the responses to the question to be marked with a single (X):
The Bill also ordered the question to be printed in Welsh. Definition of public voteThe Bill proposed to legally define the referendum as a “public vote” as follows:
OutcomeThe Bill stipulated that the proposed Withdrawal Agreement could not be ratified unless the following two conditions were met, as follows if more votes were cast in favour of “Support the proposed Withdrawal Agreement”:
Majority for withdrawalIf more votes were cast in favour of "Support the proposed Withdrawal Agreement" then both Houses of Parliament would have been required to vote on whether to ratify the proposed Withdrawal Agreement within one week of the public vote result being declared, and the Secretary of State would have had to repeal the provisions to remain in the EU as follows:
Majority for remainIf more votes were cast in favour of “Remain a member of the European Union” then the Bill proposed to automatically repeal the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 upon the result of the public vote and required the Prime Minister to notify the EU of the UK's retraction of its Article 50 notice as follows:
Power to precipitate an early General ElectionThe Bill stipulated that if both conditions required to rectify the proposed Withdrawal Agreement could not be legally met (i.e., the Withdrawal Agreement was approved by "public vote," but rejected by Parliament) then the provisions of section 2 of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 would automatically come into effect within one week of the result, as follows:
Legislative historyThe bill passed its first reading on 9 May 2018. A second reading was originally scheduled for 6 July 2018,[2] then delayed to 8 February 2019,[1] and ultimately not held.[3] The bill failed with the conclusion of the 2017–19 parliamentary session upon Parliament's dissolution on 6 November 2019 in advance of the 2019 general election. See also
Further reading
References
Information related to European Union Withdrawal Agreement (Public Vote) Bill 2017–19 |
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