Boris Johnson asks UK to ‘move on’ from Brexit as MPs debate withdrawal bill

Boris Johnson has called on the British public to discard the labels of leave and remain as MPs prepared to take a historic step towards withdrawing the UK from the EU.

The prime minister was opening the debate on the second reading of the withdrawal agreement bill (Wab), MPs’ first opportunity to vote on Brexit since last week’s general election.

“We come together as a new parliament to break the deadlock and finally to get Brexit done,” Johnson said.

He said the electorate’s decision to press ahead with leaving the EU “must not be seen as a victory for one party over another, or one faction or another. This is the time when we move on and discard the old labels of leave and remain.”

In a characteristic literary aside, Johnson claimed the terms were “as defunct as Big-Enders and Little-Enders, and Montagues and Capulets at the end of the play” – terms from Gulliver’s Travels and Romeo and Juliet respectively.

Responding to Johnson, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed his party would continue to oppose the bill – though some Labour MPs, including shadow cabinet members, have argued that the election result means they should support it and move on.

After passing the Wab at its second reading, which should happen early on Friday afternoon, parliament will break for Christmas. It will return on 7 January and the bill should complete its passage into law in time for Brexit to take place at the end of that month.

Corbyn said: “This deal will be used as a battering ram to drive us down the path towards more deregulation and towards a toxic deal with Donald Trump that will sell out our NHS and push up the price of medicines. We remain certain there is a better and fairer way for Britain to leave the EU.”

The Wab, which was published on Thursday, has been stripped of a series of promises the government had made previously in an attempt to get it through parliament before the election, including on workers’ rights.

Johnson insisted Britain’s right to make its own decisions on these issues was a key benefit of Brexit. “We will take advantage of these new freedoms to legislate in parallel on the environment, on workers and on consumer rights,” he said.

“The very essence of the opportunity of Brexit is that we will no longer outsource these decisions. With renewed national confidence, we will take those decisions ourselves and answer to those who sent us here.

“This house should never doubt its ability to pioneer standards for the fourth industrial revolution, just as it did for the first.”