MPs trade bitter blows over Brexit trigger bill
Pro-Leave and Remain MPs have argued long into the night on a marathon first day of debate on the Government’s bill to trigger Article 50.
Speaker John Bercow revealed that no fewer than 99 MPs had applied to speak in more than 11 hours of debate, which ends at midnight.
While much of the debate has been good-humoured, with appeals for unity after last year's divisive referendum, there were fierce clashes between Leavers and Remainers - often between MPs in the same party.
Early in the debate, there was high drama as veteran pro-European Ken Clarke was cheered and applauded by pro-Remain MPs.
During his speech, the former Cabinet minister incensed Tory MPs by comparing Brexit to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland, and said Enoch Powell would regard today's Conservative party as "anti-immigration".
The split in the Labour Party was also laid bare as Catherine West - a junior frontbencher who is now facing the sack - defied Jeremy Corbyn and announced she would vote against the bill along with dozens more Labour rebels.
She said: "It's not just about jobs and the economy. It's about our children, our grandchildren and about peace and prosperity."
A few minutes later, Labour's Jo Stevens, who quit as shadow Welsh Secretary over Mr Corbyn's order to vote for Article 50, said the EU referendum result "felt like a body blow".
She added: "The Prime Minister's Lancaster House speech felt like the life-support machine being switched off and triggering Article 50 will for me feel like the funeral."
The highly-charged debate will continue after Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday and MPs will vote on a Scottish National Party bid to block the bill, then on whether to give it a second reading.
A committee stage will follow in the Commons next week and the bill is set to be debated in the House of Lords between 20 February and 7 March.
During the Commons debate, many MPs called on the Government to publish a white paper before the committee stage and some MPs believe this could now happen as early as Thursday.
Opening the debate, Brexit Secretary David Davis told MPs: "We voted to give the people the chance to determine our future at a referendum; now we must honour our side of the agreement - to vote to deliver on the result.
"So really we are considering that very simple question - do we trust the people or not?"
Responding for Labour, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer provoked laughter from Conservative MPs when he said: "We have before us a short bill and a relatively simple bill, but for the Labour Party this is a very difficult bill."
Meanwhile, former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who clashed with Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, accused the Prime Minister of snubbing a German offer during talks with Angela Merkel.
He said: "I've recently heard on very good authority that senior German decision makers, shortly after the Prime Minister (came into office), were keen to explore ways to deliver an emergency brake to the new UK Prime Minister - in return what they hoped for was an undisruptive economic Brexit.
"But what did this Government choose to do? It decided to spurn all friendship links with Europe, it decided to disregard the needs of Scotland, of Northern Ireland and indeed of our great capital here, London."
The biggest clash of the debate came when Anna Soubry challenged leading Brexiteer Michael Gove over the Leave campaign's pledge to divert £350m a week in EU funding to the NHS.
She said: "Does he agree with others, that actually that figure was always false and it was a lie?"
In reply, a flustered-looking Mr Gove said: "I've no idea whether or not the word lie is un-parliamentary, but what I do know is that as someone who is not in the Government, I can't deliver these sums.
"But what I can do is I can consistently argue, as I have, that when we take back control of the money that we currently give to the European Union, we can invest that money in the NHS."
Even though Mr Bercow imposed a six-minute limit on backbench speeches for most of the debate, Conservative MP Julian Lewis won the award for brevity, with a speech of just eight seconds.
"In my opinion, the people have decided and I'm going to vote accordingly," he told MPs, before sitting down.
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