Labour MP admits that he plans to vote for Boris Johnson's Brexit deal without even reading it

A Labour MP has said he intends to vote for Boris Johnson's deal, despite admitting he hasn’t read the thing.

With debate on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill underway in parliament, Jim Fitzpatrick said he only "hopes" to have read the PM's deal in full ahead of a Commons vote at 7pm. Not as if it’s important, or anything.

In an interview with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Fitzpatrick sensationally revealed that he hadn’t even read the accompanying explanatory notes or the impact assessment.

He said:

This is a vote in principle - the second reading vote at 7pm tonight is essentially to say 'let's get discussing this bill'.

But the BBC presenter asked him:

Do you think it is acceptable to vote for something in principle, when you have not read it?

He replied:

I will have read it by 7 o'clock tonight, I hope.

Saying what most people at home would no doubt have been thinking, the presenter said:

Is this not what people pay you to do?

He replied:

People pay me to make decisions, Victoria

And we have been discussing this in detail for the last 11-and-a-half months.

On Twitter, people weren’t exactly impressed with the MP’s lack of scrutiny of such important legislation.

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