House of Lords defeats May’s plan

LONDON: Britain’s upper house of parliament has inflicted another embarrassing defeat on the Government of Prime Minister Theresa May, challenging her plan to leave the European Union’s single market after Brexit.

May, who has struggled to unite the Government behind her vision of Brexit, has said Britain will also leave the European Union’s single market and customs union after it quits the bloc next March.

That stance has widened divisions not only within her own Conservative Party but also across both houses of p arliament, which, like Britons at large, remain deeply split over the best way to leave the EU after more than four decades of membership.

By a vote of 245 to 218, the unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, supported an amendment to her Brexit blueprint, the European Union Withdrawal Bill, requiring ministers to negotiate continued membership of the European Economic Area, meaning it would remain in the single market.

This is the 13th time in recent weeks that the Government has been defeated in the House of Lords on the draft legislation that will formally terminate Britain’s EU membership.

The votes can be overturned by the more powerful House of Commons, where May’s party has a slim majority with the support of a small Northern Irish party.