You must forgive me if these columns are starting to sound a little repetitive. Like all of you, I can’t wait for Brexit to stop being the big issue of the week and I really hope that with only one point of disagreement between the Lords and Commons remaining, this week we will finally get the EU Withdraw Bill away to the Queen for Royal Assent.
Of course by the time you read this, the votes will have been taken and you’ll know the result. However as I write this on Wednesday lunchtime, Westminster is abuzz with speculation over how the vote on a meaningful vote will go this afternoon. I suspect it will be very close and could go either way.
I am clear, however, that we cannot say to the EU that Parliament or the British public will have the ability to reject their deal and in the process abandon Brexit altogether. In any negotiation the other side has to fear a bad outcome as much as we do. If there isn’t that symmetry then surely the EU will be incentivised to offer the worst possible deal in order to encourage Parliament to reject the deal and thus deliver for the EU their best possible outcome which is that the UK doesn’t leave at all.
The country has voted for Brexit and the EU must be clear that we are leaving and that we will not be in the single market nor the customs union. Perversely, the moment that we can establish that in the collective minds of the EU is also the moment that we make a better deal more possible that sees the UK and EU finding good compromise in our mutual interest.