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Daily Mirror

Politics

Dan Bloom

How your MP voted on 'illegal' Brexit Bill - full list of 72 Tories who failed to back it

European Union Boris Johnson Brexit Tory Andrew Mitchell Rebecca Pow Simon Hoare

Boris Johnson’s “illegal” law to scrap parts of his own Brexit deal passed its first hurdle last night - despite outrage from some Tory MPs.

The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill won a ‘second reading’ in the Commons by 295 votes to 221, and will now get detailed scrutiny in Parliament.

It was carried through on Tory and DUP votes while Labour, the Lib Dems, SNP and other opposition parties voted against.

Theresa May said it was not “legal under international law” and did not “maintain the standing of the UK in the eyes of the world”.

Ex-Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell said it “brazenly breaks a solemn international treaty”, adding: "It trashes our international reputation, it threatens a trade war at a time when our economy is flat and it puts us at odds with our most important ally."

And Simon Hoare, chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said it was “a failure of statecraft and it puts at risk the reputation of the United Kingdom. The arguments supporting it are flimsy at best, and irrational at worst.”

72 Tories did not vote either way on Boris Johnson's Brexit Bill (JESSICA TAYLOR/UK PARLIAMENT/UNPIXS (EUROPE))

Search how your MP voted below - or scroll down for the full list of 72 Tories who had no vote recorded.

But none of these Tories voted against the second reading - instead they abstained by not voting either way. In total 72 Tories either abstained or did not vote for another reason, such as illness or being “paired” to an absent MP.

Parliament’s system doesn’t allow us to tell which is which. Former No10 Parliamentary expert Nikki Da Costa told Playbook: “Outright ‘rebels’ are nudging the 40 mark.

“There are few surprises, and it’s clear there’s some discipline, with those who spoke against the bill abstaining rather than voting against. The chief whip will be pleased, but that discipline will also reflect discipline within the rebel camp. Let’s wait and see what amendments they table.”

The Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Brexit deal Boris Johnson signed to take us out of the EU in January 2020.

We explain it further in another article, but to avoid a ‘hard border’ with the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland had to be put under some EU trading rules.

But this made a border down the Irish Sea for goods travelling from Britain to Belfast - despite both being inside the UK.

A lorry passes through security at the Port of Larne in Co Antrim (AFP via Getty Images)

Boris Johnson has admitted he was too “optimistic” when he signed the Protocol but blamed the EU, saying he thought they would be more lax with checks.

His new system will create a “red channel” with full EU checks and a “green channel” with only minimal checks.

When traders move goods from GB to NI, goods staying in Northern Ireland would go in the green channel and goods moving on to the Republic go in the red one.

For goods in the Green Channel, EU checks and rules will effectively be suspended and firms will not even have to fill out customs declarations.

Instead there will be data-sharing with the EU via a Trusted Trader Scheme to assure Brussels the rules are being followed. This will mean submitting the standard ‘manifest’ for their consignment of goods to HMRC, which can then share the information with the EU.

Businesses will also be able to choose whether they follow UK, or EU rules, for labelling goods sold in NI.

Protesters at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland (Getty Images)

The Bill will continue to apply protocol rules where needed such as in the single electricity market and Common Travel Area.

But the UK government would give itself the power to set VAT rules in Northern Ireland.

And most controversially, most disputes would be resolved by independent arbitration and not by the European Court of Justice. This is a big red line both for Brexiteer Tories and the EU.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he was "hugely disappointed" the Government is continuing to pursue its "unlawful" unilateral approach.

EU Ambassador to the UK João Vale de Almeida also said the bill is both “illegal and unrealistic.”

But Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted the Bill has a “strong legal justification” and the UK remains committed to seeking a negotiated solution.

Boris Johnson said the plan could be brought in "fairly rapidly" despite warnings the House of Lords could be a major obstacle to the bill becoming law.

Asked if that meant by the end of the year, he added: "Yes, I think we could do it very fast, Parliament willing."

“What we're trying to do is fix something that I think is very important to our country, which is the balance of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement,” he said.

"You've got one tradition, one community that feels that things really aren't working in a way that they like or understand."

All 72 Tories who did not vote either way

NOTE: While some of these will be formal 'abstentions', MPs can fail to vote for other reasons - for example, Boris Johnson is away at the G7 and did not vote. Sickness or 'pairing' an absent MP can be other reasons. It's impossible to say definitively why an MP didn't vote unless they personally confirm it.