The main purpose of Viscount Hailsham's “meaningful vote” amendment, and that too of Dominic Grieve's, was to put no deal beyond the Government's reach. It can be argued that the former Attorney-General failed in his venture. His amendment sought, first, to ensure that the Government seeks the approval of the Commons, if no withdrawal agreement with the EU is reached by November 30, for whatever it seeks to do from that date; and, second, to follow any direction that the Commons gives it if no such agreement is reached by reached by February 15 next year. The latter element in particular is a kind of potential instruction, to be used perhaps to force a quest for renewed EEA membership; or to seek the postponement or even the abandonment of Brexit; or maybe to lock the UK into a kind of permanent transition without an end point.
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