Brexit news: MPs demand power to veto trade deals through ‘meaningful’ votes in Commons

Current plans are ‘attempt to dress poor planning up as pragmatism’, says senior MP

MPs must be given the power of veto on individual trade deals after Brexit, an influential Commons committee has said.

Britain will be able to sign lucrative trade agreements with foreign partners for the first time in decades when it leaves the European Union, rather than as a part of the bloc.

The International Trade Committee has demanded parliament receives a “meaningful” vote on every deal struck after Brexit amid an ongoing row over whether new agreements with countries such as the United States and China could lead to a decline in food safety standards.

The cross-party call is likely to meet fierce resistance from the government, which has shown reluctance to hold Commons votes as Theresa May maintains her wafer-thin parliamentary majority due only to support from the DUP.

Committee chairman Angus MacNeil condemned the government’s current transparency plans as “characteristically vague and attempt to dress poor planning up as pragmatism”.

He said: “The UK is set to begin negotiating its own trade agreements for the first time in 40 years.

“These agreements have the potential to affect every part of every UK citizen’s life – from the quality of the food we eat to the money in our pockets.

“We have seen what happens when the public and parliament are deliberately kept in the dark over trade negotiations. With so much to gain or lose, everyone has the right be heard.”

The SNP MP said the government may fail to achieve the post-Brexit benefits it has long touted if it does not give parliament a vote or offer a voice to business, civil society and the devolved governments.

The committee says MPs should table an amendable Commons motion before trade negotiations are under way in March, allowing parliament to guide the talks.

This would could significantly reduce the risk of MPs voting down trade deals that have already been agreed.

Ministers are expected to formally begin negotiations on future trade deals when Britain leaves the EU in March, but these deals will not come into force until the end of the transition period in 2021

A Department for International Trade spokesman said: “The government is committed to a transparent and inclusive trade policy and parliament has an important role to play in this.

“We have also undertaken one of the government’s biggest ever public consultations and we’re now setting up the Strategic Trade Advisory Group which will see representatives of business, civil society and consumers informing trade negotiations.”