After four failed attempts and one ousted prime minister, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill has comfortably passed the Commons at second reading. In fairness, this is not the first time this has happened. In the last parliament, Boris Johnson narrowly managed to pass the WAB at second reading – however, the government then pulled it when the programme motion (which set out a speedy timetable to pass the next stages) was voted down.
This time it’s a different story. The WAB passed second reading with a large majority of 124 – at 358 votes for to 234 against – while the programme motion passed comfortably at 353 votes to 243 against. This means the UK is firmly on course to leave the EU by 31 January. When the result was read out, there were cheers from the Tory benches.
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