This week the EU Withdrawal Bill will return to the House of Commons for us to consider some of the many amendments that have been suggested. I have to write this before the debate has begun so you might be reading this after the Government has been defeated. Equally, it might be that difficult votes have been avoided because the Government has made sensible compromises.
We’ve seen, for example, this week that Michael Gove has continued to win the plaudits of the environmental lobby by committing to establishing a new independent environmental regulator in the UK so that we can be as rigorous – if not, perhaps, even more rigorous – as the EU has been in enforcing environmental standards. His vision, which I applaud, is that Brexit should be a moment to strengthen our commitment to preserving our planet.
In making that commitment, he will probably have rendered irrelevant some of the amendments that organisations like Greener UK have been encouraging parliamentarians to support. I doubt they will now be pushed to a vote and that should give you some reassurance about how this process works. Having to rebel in the voting lobby is bad politics that demonstrates that you were incapable of finding common cause with colleagues and persuading the Government to change track.
Opposition MPs had tabled these environmentally focused amendments to the Bill but Zac Goldsmith has led a group of over twenty Conservative MPs – which included me and fellow Somerset MPs David Warburton and Rebecca Pow – and it is us, working with Ministers over the weeks beforehand that have delivered this result.
I make no apology for wanting to see Brexit delivered as it is what my constituents and the country voted for. However, I also make no apology for working with colleagues to make sure that we shape the Government’s thinking to deliver a Brexit that works for you, your community, the place that you work and our country as a whole.