Brexit secretary forced to issue statement after PM contradicts his suggestion that MPs might not get vote before UK leaves EU

David Davis was forced to issue a statement clarifying his own remarks yesterday, after he appeared to suggest parliament may not get a vote on the final Brexit deal until after Britain has left the European Union.

A spokesman for the Brexit secretary said the government “expects and intends” to let parliament have its say before Britain leaves, apparently contradicting comments he made just hours earlier.

During a two-hour hearing of the Brexit select committee on Wednesday morning, Davis told MPs that parliament might not get the chance to ratify the deal until after March 2019, because an agreement with the EU27 would not be concluded until the 11th hour.

Asked by the Labour MP Seema Malhotra when he envisaged parliament would be able to vote on the future relationship with the EU once a deal had been concluded, Davis said discussions could go on until the final minute of the final day of negotiations.

When Malhotra asked if that could mean a vote coming after the UK formally exits under the article 50 process timeline – which would be 29 March 2019 – he said: “Yes, it could be. It can’t come before we have the deal.”

His tone appeared to be contradicted by Theresa May at prime minister’s questions shortly afterwards, when she said: “I’m confident ... that we will be able to achieve that deal in time for parliament to have the vote that we committed to.”

Davis’s department then published a carefully worded statement, echoing the prime minister’s comments.

A spokesman said: “We are working to reach an agreement on the final deal in good time before we leave the EU in March 2019. Once the deal is agreed we will meet our long-standing commitment to a vote in both houses and we expect and intend this to be before the vote in the European parliament and therefore before we leave.” The spokesman added that Davis had been asked about “hypothetical scenarios” at the committee hearing.

David Davis says parliament may not get vote on final deal until after Brexit happens - Politics live Read more

The issue was the latest example of the government being forced to clarify its stance on key aspects of the Brexit process, after May alarmed business groups on Monday by appearing to suggest a transition deal would not be concluded until a final trade agreement was made.

The government is keen to avoid further inflaming tensions with backbench MPs, with its flagship EU withdrawal bill currently paused, as it tries to respond to hundreds of hostile amendments.



No 10 later insisted the prime minister had “full confidence in David Davis and his team” – but did not deny that the Brexit secretary’s comments in the select committee had been contradicted by his own department.

“He was asked a question about timing which was hypothetical and as you expect in a select committee, secretaries of state answer the questions put to them and he did,” the prime minister’s spokeswoman said. “The important point is that on the issue of voting, it is our intention and full expectation that we will secure a deal in good time before we leave and we will have a vote on it before we leave.”

Asked if the prime minister’s statement was aligned with Davis’s comment in the select committee, the spokeswoman said: “That’s for you to judge. The statement his department has issued is in total alignment with No 10’s position.”

Downing Street also declined to back Davis’s comments in the select committee that he expected the negotiations to go down to the 11th hour. “His department have issued a statement since then. That’s what you should read.”

Davis had told the Brexit select committee that he believed the EU would only finalise the deal at the last possible moment. “It’s no secret that the way the union makes its decisions tends to be at the 59th minute of the 11th hour of the last day. That’s precisely what I would expect to happen here. I am quite sure in my mind that we can do that,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Davis giving evidence to the Brexit select committee. Photograph: PA

“If there is a time limit on a negotiation the union stops the clock, it assumes it is still at 11.59 and it carries on until the deal is concluded, sometimes for 24, 36, 48 hours. That what I imagine will happen here. It will be a lot of pressure, very high stress, very exciting for everybody watching. But that will be what happens.”

He dismissed the EU chief negotiator’s claims that Brexit trade talks would drag on for years, insisting an agreement could be signed within a “nanosecond” of leaving the bloc.

Both Labour and Conservative MPs seized on Davis’s remarks, saying it was “unacceptable” that parliament faced the prospect of having no vote on the final Brexit deal until after the UK has left.

No final Brexit vote? David Davis has pulled the rug from under parliament’s feet | Martin Kettle Read more

Labour’s Chuka Umunna said Davis’s comments were “in clear breach” of what the former Department for Exiting the EU minister David Jones had told MPs in February, that parliament would have a “meaningful vote … a choice between leaving the European Union with a negotiated deal or not”.

The promise of a vote was one of the key concessions as the government struggled to get the article 50 bill, allowing it to trigger the formal process of exiting the EU, through the Commons.

Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, is expected to announce on Thursday morning that the first two days of debate on the EU withdrawal bill, its flagship piece of Brexit legislation, will be held in the week beginning 13 November, when parliament returns from a week-long break.

The government is keen to show that it is pressing ahead with the bill, which is the subject of hundreds of hostile amendments, many of them tabled by Conservative MPs, including former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who regard it as an unacceptable power-grab.

Many MPs only backed the bill at its second reading earlier this year after the government signalled that it was willing to make concessions, including on the scope of so-called Henry VIII powers, allowing ministers to change EU laws as they become part of UK law without full parliamentary scrutiny.

Leadsom insisted last week that it was not unusual for major constitutional bills to see a “pause” between their second reading and the committee stage, where MPs submit amendments; but shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer claimed the delay in bringing it back to the Commons was a sign of “paralysis”.

As the government seeks to demonstrate it is pressing ahead with Brexit May is also reported to be close to hiring former Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott into a senior role at Conservative party HQ.

Number 10 sources declined to comment on a report in the Times that Elliott, who was previously a senior figure at lobby group the Taxpayers’ Alliance, could be hired as the party’s deputy chairman, to shake up its campaign machine. The move would also be aimed at placating restive pro-Brexit backbenchers - though Elliott was not universally loved even within Vote Leave. One senior Conservative source who backed Brexit said, “I genuinely don’t know whether to laugh or cry: it’s a terrible idea”.



Elsewhere in parliament on Wednesday, MPs were warned that the tax authorities would need up to £450m in extra funding and up to 5,000 extra staff to deal with the impact of Britain leaving the EU without a deal.



John Thompson, the senior civil servant at HMRC, also told the public accounts committee he could not guarantee that a new customs system would be ready for Brexit in March 2019.

Thompson said the tax authority had already been given £78m from the £250m fund set aside by the government this year to plan for the possibility of the UK crashing out of the EU.

Most of that is being spent on dealing with customs but cash has also been used to plan for the impact no deal would have on indirect taxes, the welfare state and data sharing, MPs were told. Thompson said the funding was enough for now but warned he was likely to ask for significantly more next year.

He said an extra 3,000-5,000 staff would need to be recruited to cope with a no deal outcome.



