The British Parliament will resume briefly on September 3, and will be reopened one week later until October 14. During this week, parliamentarians opposed to hard-off Breaming are trying to find a lasting opportunity to stop the non-agreement of Brexit. The Labour Party intends to introduce legislation on the day of the resumption of the meeting. Is it possible to succeed?
All bills must be established by voting in the upper and lower houses. In general, it takes several weeks for the bill to be debated to legislation. However, if Members are committed to omitting the debate to speed up the process, the theoretical “fastest” can be completed in only four days.
One-week speed legislation
Assuming that the Labor Party proposed a bill after the resumption of the meeting on September 3, the legislative process could be initiated on the grounds of “SO24”, that is, “Standing Order 24”. At this point, the bill is first read, which is the first step of the legislative process.
On September 4, at this time, Members will debate the bill and enter a series of voting procedures. Members who support the bill can try their best to reduce the time for debate and let the vote go as soon as possible, but the vote still needs to be supported by more than half of the members of the House of Commons.
On September 5, if the vote is successfully passed, the bill will be submitted to the House of Lords for debate and voting, which will take another day. Because the House of Commons generally does not debate on Friday, there is actually no way to do anything on September 6. Together with the immediate Saturday and Sunday breaks, it means that the House of Lords must strive to pass the bill on the same day.
On September 9th, the National Assembly reopened on Monday. If everything goes well, the bill will be formally established as long as it is approved by the royal family.
This is a very urgent process, as Johnson will announce the adjournment from September 9 to 12. Any delay may make the motion not pass before the resumption of the meeting. At the same time, it means other motions to prevent hard Brexit, and even the no-confidence motion proposed by Johnson needs to be carried out within this tight time.
Unable to change default hard Brexit condition
But even if the legislation is successful, it does not mean that the non-agreement of Brexit can be completely prevented. The actual delay in the period of Brexit must be approved by the EU member states. If the British side does not propose it, or the EU refuses to extend it, the UK will still need to leave the European Union on October 31 if it cannot reach an agreement.
The legislative effect of the Labor Party can only make Johnson unable to achieve a non-agreement of Brexit through means. It cannot be reversed. If the agreement cannot be reached, the United Kingdom will default to the situation of hard-off Brexit.