Guardian understands shadow cabinet will decide to whip MPs to vote against ‘great repeal bill’ at second reading

Labour is preparing its first attempt to vote down Theresa May’s EU withdrawal bill in the next week over concerns that controversial Brexit legislation hands too much power to the executive.

The party’s shadow cabinet will take a formal decision on Tuesday, but the Guardian understands the party is expected to whip its MPs to vote against the bill at second reading in the Commons.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has repeatedly said Labour would not support the bill without significant changes to its contents, and the government has not yet made any concessions.

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The move means Theresa May’s minority Conservatives would only pass her flagship legislation to its next parliamentary stage with the help of the Democratic Unionist party. A handful of Labour rebels are also expected to vote with the government.



The Liberal Democrats and Scottish National party are planning their own attempts to block the bill by tabling amendments, but it is predicted to go through at this stage because no Conservative MPs are planning to rebel.

The parliamentary battle over the legislation, formerly known as the “great repeal bill”, will begin in the House of Commons on Thursday after MPs return from their summer break. The main votes will take place next Monday.



Its purpose is to transpose EU law directly into UK law at the point of Brexit, but it will also involve extensive use of “Henry VIII powers”, which allow ministers to change primary legislation using secondary legislation without parliamentary scrutiny.



Labour also opposes the bill’s failure to guarantee “crucial rights and protections” for citizens, and wants assurances that Britain would continue to participate in the single market, customs union and European court of justice during a transition period. The government’s refusal bring the EU charter of fundamental rights into domestic law is also a point of contention.



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One senior Labour figure said there were concerns that the party must not look as if it were trying to overturn the referendum vote, but that most MPs believed the government’s repeal bill had major flaws that justified voting against it.

The SNP have tabled an amendment to block the bill on the grounds that it fails to commit to devolving areas of law reclaimed from the EU and does not provide unilateral guarantees that EU citizens will be allowed to stay in the UK.



Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Brexit spokesman, said: “This debate is about more than just one party or one part of the UK. It is up to parties and MPs from across these islands and the political spectrum to come together and work for a better deal and hold the government to account.”

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Brexit, said: “This bill represents a major threat to the sovereignty of parliament, and no amount of tweaking and fiddling will make a silk purse of this sow’s ear. The Liberal Democrats will fight to fix this bill and if it is not changed we will vote against it at second reading.”

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, will give a statement to parliament on Tuesday addressing concerns about the progress of talks on leaving the EU and the withdrawal bill, but opposition parties have no expectation that he will back down on any of their concerns.

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Conservative MPs fighting against a hard Brexit have ruled out blocking the legislation at second reading, but are likely to support amendments at a later stage in the process. This has led Tory whips to warn that any rebellion by Tory MPs could be seen as support for Jeremy Corbyn.

Anna Soubry, a former Conservative minister, said suggestions of a revolt at second reading were “an absolute nonsense”, but called on the prime minister to build a consensus over Brexit and submit to parliamentary process.

She said May must put an end to the government’s attitudewhich suggests that scrutinising the bill would be “weird” or “treacherous”, and acknowledged that she may support amendments as the legislation makes its way through parliament.

“There’s nothing weird and there’s certainly nothing treacherous about putting down amendments … It’s called democracy,” Sourby said.

Some Tories could, however, rebel over the timetable for parliamentary debate, known as “programme motion”, if they feel the government has not allocated enough time for MPs to scrutinise the bill.



A number of Labour MPs hope their party will not help the government by supporting the “programme motion”, which will set a time limit for debate on the bill.

Chris Leslie, a Labour MP and former shadow chancellor, said: “Maastricht took five weeks to debate. I think it would be ludicrous if there was some sort of agreement on the programme motion when it will take time to find the issues where there is cross-party consensus on amendments,” he said.





The biggest threat of a government defeat over the great repeal bill will come in October after party conferences, when opposition MPs will lay hundreds of amendments. Tory MPs will be most likely to support changes proposed by backbenchers rather than Corbyn’s leadership team.