Letter to my MP - Avoiding the EU elections

Today, Philip Hammond was quoted as saying, "Clearly nobody wants to fight the European elections. It feels like a pointless exercise, and the only way we can avoid that is by getting a deal agreed and done quickly. If we can do that by 22 May, we can avoid fighting the European parliamentary elections".

What does he mean by "if we can do that"? He was referring to negotiations between the Conservative and Labour parties. Is the government yet again talking as if all that matters is to agree an approach within the UK Parliament?

For the UK to ratify the withdrawal package, the EU (Withdrawal) Act tells us the Commons must vote for a motion to approve the withdrawal agreement and political declaration, the Lords must debate a neutral motion on the two documents, and a Withdrawal Agreement Implementation Bill must go through both houses and receive royal assent.

In addition, the treaty can't come into effect without votes in the EU Parliament and the EU Council. And none of these votes can take place without - at least - a draft being agreed by the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, and the EU ministers of the EU27 member states.

Is Mrs May's declared intention, echoed above by Mr Hammond, to achieve all this in time to make UK participation in the EU Parliament elections unnecessary? When could this all happen?

The current EU Parliament meets for the last time on 18 April - while the Commons is in recess - and the new parliament doesn't convene until 2 July. Mrs May and Mr Corbyn might come to an agreement on a new political declaration during the week of 22 April and manage the required approval from Mr Barnier and his working group during the following week, but there will be no EU Parliament to approve it.

Yesterday Martin Whitfield (East Lothian) asked the prime minister, "The deal will require ratification by the European Parliament. The current European Parliament will sit for the last time a week from today, and then after the elections it will meet just once in July to sort itself out. It will not really meet properly until October or November. Is an earlier leaving date not actually an impossibility, because the deal cannot be ratified?".

And she replied, "No, it is not an impossibility. It is possible for the European Parliament to ratify in advance of the United Kingdom ratifying". But whatever she might wish to have them approve doesn't exist today, and as and when it does come into being there will be no EU Parliament to consider it.

I'm told that the EU Parliament can be recalled to discuss an important topic, as the Commons can, and that a quorum of a third of MEPs could make such a decision. Is Mrs May relying on that, during an election period?

It's also possible that she's hoping the condition which could have given us an extension to 22 May - the Commons approving the withdrawal agreement - would suffice, but that leaves a huge hostage to fortune, because it would still be possible that the EU Parliament could reject it later, leaving a parliament without British MEPs, and legally invalid. I can't believe that Mr Barnier, the Commission or the Council would allow that to happen.

To put it simply, I don't see how this country will not be taking part in elections to the EU Parliament on 23 May.