Benn Act

The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019, commonly informally referred to as the Benn Act after the Labour MP Hilary Benn as Chair of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee who introduced it, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that required the Prime Minister of the UK to seek an extension to the Brexit withdrawal datethen scheduled for 31 October 2019in certain circumstances. The main provisions of the Act were triggered if the House of Commons did not give its consent to either a withdrawal agreement or leaving without a deal by 19 October 2019. The Act proposed a new withdrawal date of 31 January 2020, which the Prime Minister was obliged to accept if the proposal was accepted by the European Council.

The Act also contained provisions that detailed the course of action if an alternative date were proposed by the European Council, required regular reports on the progress of any negotiations between the EU and the UK, and set out the format of the letter the Prime Minister was required to send to the President of the European Council should he be required to seek an extension. It also removed the discretion of the Prime Minister not to amend exit day in response to an extension. The Act was given Royal Assent on 9 September 2019 and commenced the same day.

The bill was proposed by opposition and backbench MPs after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. It was passed after they took control of the parliamentary agenda in the run-up to the controversialand later ruled void prorogation of Parliament. The Government fiercely opposed the bill, and Boris Johnson and other eurosceptics repeatedly referred to the Act as the "Surrender Act". The Government had been suspected of examining options on how to nullify the Act's effect. On 19 October, Johnson sent the letter to the president of the European Council Donald Tusk requesting an extension to the Brexit withdrawal date per the Act. This was formally approved on 28 October. On 30 October 2019, the day named as "exit day" in UK legislation was accordingly changed to 31 January 2020 at 11.00 p.m.

The Act was repealed on 23 January 2020 by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020.

Background

In June 2016, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union by a margin of 52% to 48%. Nine months later, on 29 March 2017, the Government, by then led by Theresa May, invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, after Parliament voted to approve the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 by a vote of 498 to 114. After a General Election in June 2017, May's Conservative Party lost their majority, but were supported by the Democratic Unionist Party to enact their legislative agenda.

The Brexit withdrawal agreement was published in November 2018, and was rejected three times by Parliament in early 2019. Facing the prospect of leaving the EU without a deal, Parliament voted to also reject a "no deal" scenario and to request an extension to the Article 50 process with the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019. The Government and the European Council subsequently agreed to delay Brexit, until 12 April 2019 in the first instance, and then to 31 October 2019.

Due to opposition from her own party to her handling of Brexit, May resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June 2019 and Prime Minister on 24 July 2019. She was succeeded after the following leadership election as leader and Prime Minister by Boris Johnson, who pledged, "do or die", to withdraw the UK from the EU on 31 October, with or without a deal.

On 28 August 2019, Johnson advised Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue Parliament from the second week of September 2019 until 14 October 2019, days before a scheduled summit of the European Council on 17 October. The prorogation reduced the amount of time that was available to Parliament to scrutinise Government business, and was criticised outwith the government as a tactic to force a "no deal" Brexit without the consent of Parliament: in particular the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow called prorogation in the circumstances a "constitutional outrage"; and protestors at an impromptu demonstration saw the government as effecting a coup d'état or self-coup.

Contents of the Act

The Act contained four substantive sections and a schedule that contained the form of a letter to request an extension of the negotiating period:

* Section 1 obliged the Prime Minister to request an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period for the purpose of negotiating a withdrawal agreement, unless the House of Commons has passed a motion which either approved a withdrawal agreement or approves departure without a deal, and the House of Lords had debated the same motion. If such a motion was not approved, the Prime Minister was obliged to make the request no later than 19 October 2019.
* Section 2 obliged the Government to publish a progress report on negotiations before 30 November 2019, and if rejected or amended, publish a second report which detailed its plans for further negotiations. Section 2 also obliged the Government to make progress reports every four weeks from 7 February 2020 unless directed otherwise.
* Section 3 obliged the Prime Minister to accept an extension to 31 January 2020, and allowed the Prime Minister to either accept an offer or ask the House of Commons to accept an offer of any other date.
* Section 4 amended legislation to ensure the date of departure is synchronised with European law.
* The Schedule specified the required layout and wording of the letter that requests the extension.

Legislative history

On 3 September 2019, Conservative MP Oliver Letwin tabled a motion that would allow the House of Commons to undertake proceedings on the second reading, committee stage, consideration and third reading of a backbench Brexit bill on the following day. The motion was passed with a majority of 27. A total of 21 Conservative MPs voted in favour of the motion and against the Government; this led to the whip being withdrawn from the rebels, and pushed the government further away from a majority