Brexit passes major milestone as MPs vote for Boris Johnson’s bill

Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill has cleared its final Commons hurdle this afternoon.

MPs voted it through on its third reading, and it will now pass to the House of Lords.

The Bill passed by 330 votes to 231.

It means it should then become law in time for the UK to leave the EU on the scheduled date of January 31.

The comfortable victory for the prime minister comes after he won a landslide in the December general election – and is in marked contrast to Theresa May’s failed attempts to steer a Brexit bill through the Commons.

However, the Bill could face a more bumpy road in the House of Lords, where many peers are staunch remainers.

Opening the debate, Brexit minister James Duddridge said: ‘This Bill is essential in preparing our country for leaving the European Union and will ensure that the deal which has been reached can be implemented.

‘It also ensures that we can protect the rights of citizens who have made their lives here and there is no hard border on the island of Ireland and that we take back control of money and our laws.’

Conservative MP Owen Paterson, for North Shropshire, has warned the Lords not to delay the Brexit Bill.

Mr Paterson said: ‘I would give a very, very, very clear warning to those members sitting in the other place. They are overwhelmingly for Remain, many of them benefit from their previous employment in the European Commission. They should respect four massive votes by the people.’

Discussing how the Bill has progressed through the Commons ‘rapidly’, he added: ‘I do hope the other place has watched what has happened. There is a very clear, determined goal which is to honour those votes, honour the result of the general election and to ensure that we leave the European at 2300 on the evening of January 31, and I look forward to voting tonight for the third reading.’

The SNP’s shadow leader of the House Pete Wishart said the Government ‘may have won their hard Brexit, but they have most definitely lost Scotland’.

Urging the Government to ‘just get on with it’ and grant Scotland a second independence referendum, he added: ‘It’s over, it’s over. Scotland will be an independent country. The sooner this House recognises it the better.

‘The battle for us to have Brexit is over, they’ve won. The battle for Scottish independence has just begun.’