Priti Patel slams ‘national humiliation’ of Article 50 Extension
The Witham MP, Priti Patel, has slammed the decision made by the House of Commons to vote to instruct the Prime Minister to ask the EU to extend the Article 50 process and the UK’s membership of the EU to 30 June 2019. This vote followed a week which saw a very slim majority of MPs passing a new law to block Brexit and preparations getting under way for elections to the European Parliament.
Priti said: “The sight of the Prime Minister begging the EU to extend our membership of the EU is a national humiliation. Instead of being outside of the EU now and benefiting from the freedoms that this will bring, the public are being forced to accept remaining in the EU. I voted against this extension so that we could leave this Friday and deliver on our promises to the British people.”
“Three years ago this country voted to leave the EU and the people were promised this result would be respected. In 2017, Conservative and Labour MPs were elected on manifestos promising that we would leave but many have now turned their back on the people and broken their promises. It is ridiculous that the British people are now being asked to vote in EU elections, with all the costs that this involves, when we should have left by now. This is fundamentally undermining trust in the political process.”
“The humiliation of begging to stay in the EU is compounded by the fact that the EU will place conditions on the UK remaining. Instead of standing up for our country and putting the wishes of the British people first, the Government and MPs are letting the EU dictate the entire Brexit process to us.”
“I will continue to press for Britain to be a free, independent and sovereign country by leaving the EU and fulfilling out promised to the people.”