Lewis quits shadow cabinet as Brexit bill passes

Labour’s Shadow Business Minister Clive Lewis has resigned from the shadow cabinet following the passing of the Brexit Bill through the House of Commons.

Despite 52 Labour MPs defying the party’s three-line whip, the bill completed its passage through the House of Commons without a single amendment, having gained 494 votes in favour and 122 against. This means that Prime Minister Theresa May can trigger Article 50 and begin the formal process to leave the EU, which the Conservative leader maintains will be achieved by the end of March.

Lewis, MP for Norwich South, said that it was ‘with a heavy heart’ that he resigned, becoming the fourth shadow cabinet member to resign rather than vote in favour.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, speaking to the BBC, said that Labour had been right to ‘respect’ the result of last year's EU referendum, and added that Lewis’ resignation was ‘not a disaster’.

Prominent Labour MP Diane Abbott, who was absent from last week’s second reading of the bill through illness, voted in favour of the bill at its third reading but added that it ‘does not mean that we have to accept Brexit in the haphazard way in which it is being handed to us’.