Brexit sabotage! Peers vote to stop us leaving the EU without a deal
REMAIN-BACKING peers were last night accused of seeking to “stop Brexit altogether”, after inflicting a heavy defeat on ministers over vital EU departure legislation.
In a major setback for Theresa May’s plans, the House of Lords voted 335 to 244 in favour of giving Parliament powers to block a “no-deal” exit – the Government’s seventh defeat on a series of amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which seeks to lay the legal foundation for quitting the bloc.
Ministers vowed to try to scrap the change with a new Commons vote after warning the Lords’ decision could give MPs and peers “unprecedented” powers to meddle in the push for an agreement with Brussels.
The 19 Tory rebels included Lords Heseltine, Patten and Willetts.
They backed an amendment tabled by Viscount Hailsham – the former Tory MP shamed in the Westminster expenses scandal for claiming taxpayers’ cash to clean his moat – who claimed the 2016 EU referendum vote should be considered only an “interim decision”.
He told the upper house: “It was an instruction to the Government to negotiate withdrawal on the best terms that could be achieved. A final and conclusive decision can only be made when these options have crystallised.”
Following the defeat, Brexit minister Steve Baker said: “What this amendment is seeking to do is to give Parliament the opportunity to stop Brexit altogether by giving the Commons the opportunity to direct the Government to do anything towards the end of the process. It is an unprecedented power, it is constitutional innovation and I think it is the wrong thing to vote for.”
But Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer called the vote a “hugely significant moment”.
He said: “Under no circumstances can the Prime Minister be given a blank cheque to crash the UK out of the EU without a deal.”
During unusually passionate exchanges for the normally sedate upper house, Lib Dem peer Lord Roberts likened Brexit laws to those that gave Adolf Hitler total power in Nazi Germany in 1933.
But Tory peer Lord Fairfax said: “This is a wrecking amendment designed to delay, frustrate and ultimately block Brexit.”