Posted on 2017-01-31 | 12:29

Speaking on the upcoming vote on triggering Article 50, Roger said: "I voted for the UK to leave the EU because on balance, I believed that the best interests of the UK would be served by us leaving the EU. This is because I believed the EU was a failed project, incapable of reforming itself, and that trying to create a United States of Europe by stealth was not going to be in the interests of this country or of the other countries of the EU.

"I did not seek to impose my views on anyone and I did not campaign in my constituency. I told everyone, including my staff, that they had to make up their own minds as to how they voted.

  "In Birmingham six of the ten constituencies voted to ‘leave’ despite the fact that all six MPs campaigned to remain. The four constituencies that voted to remain included my constituency of Hall Green and I made it clear, after the result was announced, that now that ‘representative democracy’ had returned I would not be voting to trigger Article 50 out of respect for the clearly expressed wishes of the majority of voters in my constituency. This remains my position and I will not be voting to trigger Article 50 when Parliament votes on this issue. I will be abstaining on this vote.

"I do not think that it is wise for the Labour leadership to impose a ‘3 line whip’ on Labour MPs to support the Government’s positon. The most sensible approach would have been to allow Labour MPs a free vote so that they could take into account the majority views of their constituents.

"The people of this country made their decision and that decision has to be respected and implemented. It is up to the Government to achieve the best possible terms for our withdrawal from the EU and the negotiated terms have to be put to Parliament for them to approve or reject. If the negotiated terms were to be put to the people in another referendum then I would not be opposed to this."