Deputy St Pier: Brexit uncertainty continues

The statement follows the votes in the Commons on Tuesday evening which saw MPs back Boris Johnson's Brexit deal for the first time.

A majority of 30 MPs, 329, voted for the bill which would lead to Brexit becoming law.

MPs then voted on the the timetable for passing that legislation.

The Prime Minister threatened to pull the bill and seek a general election if MPs rejected the timetable.

The 'noes' won the timetabling debate with 322 votes to 308.

'Tonight the house refused to be bounced into debating a hugely important [110-page] bill in just two days,' leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn said after the vote.

He said he would sit down with Mr Johnson and sort out a reasonable timetable to examine the Brexit bill in the Commons.

Mr Johnson then paused the legislation and will wait until the European Council has made up its mind on the delay: 'We should leave the EU on 31 October and that is what I will say to the EU and I will report back to the house. And one way or another we will leave the EU with this deal, to which this house has just given its agreement.'

Guernsey's chief minister Deputy Gavin St Pier told the Guernsey Press: 'Clearly the decision tonight means that the uncertainty continues and that period of extended uncertainty means we must assume that the UK will exit and we must plan accordingly for that.'

He later tweeted: 'Given the votes in Westminster in the last week which have prevented the Withdrawal Agreement being approved in sufficient time, the EU27 acceding to the UK's request for an extension, so avoiding a disorderly exit by the UK on 31 October would be in Guernsey's interests.'