Conservatives roasted for falsely claiming parliament ‘passed’ Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal
Boris Johnson's “big win” last night was not as big as he would like you to think it was.
MPs allowed the prime minister’s Brexit deal to pass its first hurdle in the House of Commons on Tuesday - by approving its second reading - but rejected Johnson’s attempt to force the deal through in three days.
Now, the Conservatives are trying to convince voters that they passed a Brexit deal and Labour voted to block it…
The only problem with that argument is... it's not true.
Yesterday’s vote wasn’t insignificant - as it was the first time a Brexit deal has been supported by parliament - but Johnson’s deal is still far from becoming law.
That’s because bills have to go through multiple stages in the Commons and some MPs who voted for the deal yesterday did so because they wanted to scrutinise it or potentially add amendments to it at a later stage.
Labour also didn't "block" the deal on their own - in fact, Johnson’s attempt to fast-track the deal was defeated thanks to the DUP and a group of former Conservatives MPs who he kicked out of the party.
And as Sky News’ Lewis Goodall pointed out last night, the Conservatives know it's not true to say Johnson’s deal “passed” parliament - but they said it anyway.
Even if they didn’t realise it before, the official Conservatives Twitter account has tweeted the false claim four more times since last night and been roasted for it every time.
Some people have also pointed out that the 19 Labour MPs who voted to approve the second reading of the bill are now seeing their vote being used against them.
Ironically, Johnson decided to pause his Brexit legislation after last night's vote - effectively putting Brexit in limbo - but you won't see Conservatives complaining that he's delaying Brexit.