MPs To Vote On UK Brexit Bill On Friday

The UK Conservative Party’s win at the general elections last week achieved 365 seats in parliament vs Labour’s 203. With that behind us, focus has now quickly shifted back to Brexit.

The Prime Minister has announced that he will be holding the vote on his Brexit deal in parliament this Friday.

Johnson has outlined his plan to gain parliamentary backing for his deal and proceed with Brexit by the January 31^st, 2020 deadline agreed upon with the EU in October.

New MPs to Enter Parliament

Before the vote on Friday, Johnson has a busy week ahead of him. MPs are returning to parliament for the first time today as part of the new government.

Johnson will be meeting 109 new Conservative MPs, many of whom won their seats in a traditional Labour stronghold. As part of the influx of new MPs this week, the PM will carry out a cabinet reshuffle to fill some of the posts left vacant as a result of the elections.

The first duty of MPs this week will be to elect Lindsay Hoyle as the new speaker after he replaced former Speaker John Bercow in November. There is unlikely to be a vote on this motion. However, constitutionally speaking, there could be one. The Speaker will then begin swearing in the MPs.

Queen to Outline Parliamentary Programme

The Queen will also formally commence parliament with a speech. The speech is written by government ministers setting out the government’s legislative plans for the sessions. Following this is a parliamentary debate on the content of the speech.

Withdrawal Agreement Bill

Finally, on Friday, Johnson will introduce the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to parliament.

Last time around, Johnson secured backing for his bill. However, he failed to achieve backing for the fast-track timeframe within which he needed to implement the bill to leave the EU on October 31^st.

However, with the January 31^st deadline having been agreed on well ahead of time, and with the Conservative party now holding a majority in parliament, Johnsons is likely to see the Bill passed. This will allow them to honor the January 31^st Brexit deadline.

When asked whether the bill presented on Friday would be the same as the one presented in October, the PMs spokesman said:

“The Bill will reflect the Agreement made with the EU on our Withdrawal.”

Looking ahead to the trade talks which will then commence over the transitional phase, the PM’s spokesman said Johnson Is “confident” he can get a “Canada style” agreement in place by the December 31^st, 2020 deadline.

However, the PM’s spokesman would not comment on the potential details of the trade deal or whether Johnsons would leave the talks without a deal. However, Johnson has said himself that he will not extend talks beyond the slated deadline.

Technical Perspective

GBPUSD continues to attempt to break out above the 1.3379 level, trading up as high as a test of the bearish long-term trend line from 2015 highs, before reversing. While above the 1.3241 level, however, focus is on an eventual break higher. If we reverse below this level however, attention will turn to deeper support at the 1.2981 level.