The MP for Islwyn, Chris Evans, has called on the UK Government to “get Brexit right”, claiming not enough preparation has been done since the referendum result.
Mr Evans believes the UK Government is under-prepared to meet its proposed date to trigger Article 50 in March 2017, but added he would fulfil the wishes of his constituents by committing to a Leave vote.
Mr Evans said: “Ever since Theresa May was appointed Prime Minister in July, her top priority for government should have been preparing the plan for Britain to leave the European Union.
“Here we are nearly six months after the referendum result and the grand plan is totally meaningless words giving absolutely no comfort or direction to the British public or businesses based here.
“It was not until Labour tabled an opposition motion in the House of Commons last week that the government came up with a date of March 31 2017 to trigger Article 50. The sooner the better, but why have a self-imposed date when we have no idea whether this is achievable?
“Not having done anything in all this time apparently some great strategy will be formalised in the few short months after Christmas. Are we really to believe that something so important as leaving the EU can be wrapped up by then?
“As we have no idea when the plan is to be published prior to March 31 2017, how on earth can we give a commitment to press go on that date without proper parliamentary scrutiny? To me, that is the equivalent of starting a ten second countdown on a space shuttle without checking all the doors are shut.
“My constituents voted for Leave and I respect that, therefore I will vote to Leave when the time comes. However, I believe it is my duty as a Member of Parliament to get the best possible deal for Islwyn. We only have one shot at this so let’s make sure we get it right.”
I really cannot understand the rationale behind the remarks of Chris Evans MP. Parliament voted to delegate the decision on whether or not to leave the EU to the British people by means of a referendum. The Prime Minister, at that time, David Cameron said that article 50 would be triggered the day after the result, if the vote was to leave. I don’t recollect any MP saying “hold on, we need to spend lots of time tinkering with this before doing anything.”
Chris Evans says he will vote to leave when the time comes (electoral suicide if he does not methinks), and goes on the say that the sooner we begin the process the better. The government have provided a target date of 31st March but he says he is going to vote against this date. I find his remarks contradictory and am unsure about what he intends to achieve.