May’s draft law faces test in upper chamber
Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft law allowing her to trigger Britain’s departure from the EU was expected to be discussed in the UK parliament’s upper chamber on Monday, with some Lords aiming to make changes that the opposition failed to secure in the lower house.
Members of the unelected upper chamber have proposed about 30 amendments to the bill. While that is nowhere near the more than 250 submitted in the House of Commons, May’s lack of majority in the Lords means she is more vulnerable to losing a vote there.
In particular, some members are seeking a vote on May’s eventual Brexit deal that would leave time for her to return to her EU counterparts and negotiate changes if parliament finds the accord unsatisfactory.
“I’d like to see some of those concessions, like having a meaningful vote at the end, like having some parliamentary engagement throughout on the face of the bill,” the main opposition Labour party’s leader in the House of Lords, Angela Smith, said on Monday in a BBC Radio interview.
“There has to be that engagement throughout the process. It can’t be we say to Theresa May: ‘Bye bye, off you go, come back in two years’.”
On Monday and Tuesday, there will be a general debate on the bill, with discussion on substantive changes not due until next week. If the Lords change the bill, it will return to the Commons.
That can lead to a process known among MPs as pingpong in which the bill can go back and forth between the chambers several times before consensus is finally reached.
The demands for parliamentary scrutiny and a call for the Conservative premier to guarantee the rights of more than 3-million EU nationals living in Britain are the areas where May is most vulnerable to defeat in the Lords.
“There’s a strong body of opinion across party and amongst the independent peers as well that both these issues are very serious,” Peter Mandelson, a Labour upper-house legislator and former EU commissioner, said on Sunday.
May staved off a rebellion in the Commons by promising legislators a vote on the final deal, which Brexit Minister David Jones said would be a choice between leaving the EU with the negotiated deal or no deal whatsoever.
THE PRIME MINISTER’S LACK OF A MAJORITY IN THE LORDS MEANS SHE IS MORE EXPOSED TO LOSING A VOTE THERE