The Withdrawal Agreement Votes

It looks increasingly likely that the United Kingdom is heading for a No Deal exit from the European Union.

There are many politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson, Ian Blackford, Hilary Benn, Dominic Grieve, Sarah Wollaston who are loudly claiming that they are against what they see as a disastrous outcome of No Deal and who say they will stretch every sinew to prevent that outcome.

The only trouble is that they did not stretch every sinew to prevent No Deal. The one thing they could easily have done is to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement. Before getting into the votes let us remind ourselves of what Article 50 actually says:

1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements. 

2. A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention. In the light of the guidelines provided by the European Council, the Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that State, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union. That agreement shall be negotiated in accordance with Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It shall be concluded on behalf of the Union by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament. 

3. The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period. 

4. For the purposes of paragraphs 2 and 3, the member of the European Council or of the Council representing the withdrawing Member State shall not participate in the discussions of the European Council or Council or in decisions concerning it.A qualified majority shall be defined in accordance with Article 238(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 

5. If a State which has withdrawn from the Union asks to rejoin, its request shall be subject to the procedure referred to in Article 49.

For the purposes of this Post I am only interested in the wording of 50(3) above.

To be fair to Mrs May who I thought was a dreadful Prime Minister she repeatedly told the House of Commons that if they did not want No Deal they had to vote for a deal. They declined to do so.

The House of Commons declined to support a deal on 3 separate occasions. Here are the votes

Noe Votes	WA1	WA2	WA3
Green	1	1	1
DUP	10	10	10
Labour	253	252	247
Lib Dems	11	11	11
Plaid Cymru	4	4	4
SNP	35	35	34
Sub Total	314	313	307
Conservative	118	78	37
Sub Total	432	391	344
Tellers Noe	2	2	2
Total	434	393	346
Vacant Seat	1	1	1
Speakers	4	4	4
Sinn Fein	7	7	7
Aye	202	242	286
Tellers Aye	2	2	2
Grand Total	650	649	646

The Treaties SHALL CEASE to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period.

Mrs May and the European Union have unanimously agreed that the period shall be extended to 31st October 2019. Therefore unless Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson requests a further extension AND the EU 27 UNANIMOUSLY agrees to such a request, the United Kingdom shall leave the European Union on 31st October 2019 with or without a deal.

I have little time for our Members of Parliament at present. The Conservative Party actually put in its manifesto (page 35):

The negotiations will undoubtedly be tough and there will be give and take on both sides but we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal for the UK

Members of Parliament can't really complain. They either did not read the Article 50 and Withdrawal Acts OR they thought that if they voted against the deal Mrs May would revoke the Article 50 notification which to her credit she has declined to do.

No Deal was in the legislation. All the House of Commons had to do to avoid No Deal was to vote through the Withdrawal Agreement. They declined to do so. The consequence of those three separate and deliberate actions is NO DEAL