LONDON, Nov. 12-- UK's former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday that the parliament should have a final vote on any Brexit deal agreed with the European Union (EU). "It would be a travesty of democracy if there is not an open debate in the House of Commons on the deal," Brown told a briefing at the Institute for Government (IFG), an independent social policy think-tank in London. "We have to argue... for all views to be heard, and for amendments to be heard before you have the conclusive vote and one of these amendments must be the opportunity to renegotiate the deal the government has done if people find that unsatisfactory," said Brown, who was prime minister between 2007 and 2009. Brown backed the principle of the British parliament sending any deal agreed by Prime Minister Theresa May's government and the EU back to the EU leaders in Brussels for renegotiation if the British parliament did not vote to back it. "There is no reason ... why you cannot go back to Brussels and say 'this is not the deal we want'," he said. Talks between Britain and the EU over exit from the bloc are stalled, with the primary handicap being the status of the border between the British region of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the only land border Britain has with the EU. An influential and vocal section of May's ruling Conservative Party supports having no deal with the EU if a deal means sharing elements of sovereignty, such as control over trade deals, tariffs and borders. |