A VERY Merry Brexmas! Boris Johnson looks delighted with his thumping 358 to 234 Brexit deal win after heading straight from the Commons to toast victory with lunch at Scott’s in Mayfair
- Mr Johnson dined at a Mayfair restaurant after celebrating historic Brexit win
- It’s been a relentless few weeks for the Prime Minister in lead-up to Christmas
- MPs today voted in favour of Johnson’s Brexit deal with 358 to 234 majority
- The win means the UK is now on course for leaving the EU by January 31
- However, PM criticised by Labour for removing protections from original WAB
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seen leaving a restaurant in Mayfair where he enjoyed a celebratory meal following his Brexit divorce deal victory in Parliament earlier today.
After his proposal passed with a thumping 358 to 234 majority, Mr Johnson did not head back into the House of Commons to make a speech, as is usual custom, but rather headed straight to Scott’s seafood restaurant to toast his overwhelming win.
It comes in the week before Christmas, after MPs overwhelmingly backed his Brexit deal in a historic vote.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seen leaving Scott’s in Mayfair after celebrating his Brexit divorce deal victory in Parliament today
After his proposal passed with a thumping 358 to 234 majority, Mr Johnson did not head back into the House of Commons to make a speech, as is usual custom, but rather headed straight to the seafood restaurant to toast his victory
Mr Johnson is shielded from the rain by an umbrella as he leaves Scott’s in Mayfair after a historic win in Parliament
It’s been a relentless few weeks for the Prime Minister, which saw him backed by voters in a general election last week before he turned his attention to getting Brexit done by the end of January.
MPs will now break for Christmas before returning in January for further debates and votes on the legislation which is needed to deliver an orderly split from Brussels next month.
Mr Johnson was able to win the vote despite facing a storm of criticism from opposition MPs over his decision to remove some concessions from the WAB made by the government during the last hung parliament to win over Labour backbenchers on issues like refugees and workers’ rights.
The government is now hoping to get the WAB onto the statute book by the middle of January to give the European Parliament time to ratify the divorce accord before the deadline.
Today’s vote represents a massive victory for Mr Johnson and is the final proof that his general election gamble has paid off, with the passage of the WAB now a formality because of the Tories massive 80-seat majority.
In a sign of Mr Johnson’s joy at the result, he was spotted signing autographs for Tory MPs to mark the occasion after it was announced.
It’s been a relentless few weeks for the Prime Minister, which saw him backed by voters in a general election before he turned his attention to getting Brexit done by the end of January
He then tweeted that the vote meant ‘we are one step closer to getting Brexit done’.
Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party and a long term critic of the PM’s deal, said it was a ‘historic moment’ and the UK’s departure from the EU ‘is happening’.
Labour and other opposition parties voted against the PM’s deal but with Mr Johnson now in charge of a cohort of 365 Tory MPs he will not be able to be stopped from delivering on his ‘get Brexit done’ mantra.
Jeremy Corbyn had whipped Labour to reject the WAB but six of his MPs rebelled to back Mr Johnson: Sarah Champion, Rosie Cooper, Jon Cruddas, Emma Lewell-Buck, Grahame Morris and Toby Perkins. A further 32 did not vote.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson smiles beside Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, First Secretary of State Dominic Raab and Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) had whipped Labour to reject the WAB but six of his MPs rebelled to back Mr Johnson: Sarah Champion, Rosie Cooper, Jon Cruddas, Emma Lewell-Buck, Grahame Morris and Toby Perkins. A further 32 did not vote
The crushing victory for Mr Johnson came after he had urged MPs to finally ‘come together’ and back the deal so that the UK can ‘begin the healing’ after three years of division.
Mr Johnson said the time had come to ‘reunite our country’ and ‘discard the old labels of Leave and Remain’.
He told MPs this morning: ‘If this House comes together now to support this bill as I hope it will, history will record that the first act of this new parliament in its earliest days was to break the ice flows and find a new passage through to unsuspected oceans of opportunity.
‘And so now is the moment to come together and write a new and exciting chapter in our national story, to forge a new partnership with our European friends, to stand tall in the world, to begin the healing for which the whole people of this country yearn.’
Mr Johnson emerged victorious after Mr Corbyn had earlier claimed the PM’s deal would ultimately result in maggots in orange juice and rat hairs in paprika.
Mr Corbyn said the UK would have to ‘slash food standards’ in order to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with the US.