Lords threat to delay law
A CRUCIAL law needed to end freedom of movement may not be in place on time for Brexit after unelected peers warned they will not be bounced into signing it off, it was warned yesterday.
Lord Speaker Norman Fowler said other legislation considered vital if Britain leaves the EU without a deal may also not be ready.
The House of Lords has inflicted a string of defeats on the Government as it tries to take the country out of the EU and is now gearing up for a fresh battle on immigration.
But the former Tory Cabinet minister insisted the upper chamber is not to blame for any delays and denied claims that peers were “saboteurs” or “traitors”.
In an interview with the Daily Express, he said the Immigration Bill was still stuck in the Commons and would not be ready to begin its passage through the Lords until days before Brexit.
He said: “That’s leaving it pretty darn late as far as this House is concerned.” Lord Fowler insisted peers would need to spend time closely examining the Bill.
“Particularly on something like
‘If we are running out of time, this cannot be put at the door of the Lords’
immigration… people feel strongly on that,” he said.
“If we are running out of time this cannot be put at the door of the House of the Lords.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid introduced the Bill last month by telling MPs it was “fundamental to our future immigration system”.
“It will end freedom of movement,” he said. If Britain leaves with a deal there will be a transition period, but without that the new immigration laws must be in place if freedom of movement is to end.
Lord Fowler said he did not know if the Bill would complete its final stages in the upper chamber by the time Britain leaves on March 29.
“It depends how controversial, it depends entirely upon the issues that are settled in the House of Commons,” he added.
“I don’t know what those are going to be and what the result of that is going to be. But obviously we are running out of time.”
Other legislation covering agriculture and fisheries has “not come anywhere near us”.
He said: “Both of those, it’s said, need to be through by March 29.”
He insisted peers must have plenty of time to scrutinise the Bills otherwise very
UK ECONOMY IS NOW GROWING MORE SLOWLY
THE UK economy grew by 0.2 per cent in the final three months of last year.
And annual gross domestic product (GDP) increased by
1.4 per cent in 2018, according to the Office for National Statistics.
ONS figures released yesterday showed GDP growth had slowed compared with the 0.6 per cent increase in the previous quarter, when warm weather and the World Cup contributed to a boost in economic activity.
Rob Kent-Smith, from the ONS, said: “GDP slowed in the last three months of the year, with the manufacturing of cars and steel products seeing steep falls and construction also declining. But services continued to grow, with the health sector, management consultants and IT all doing well.”
ONS figures also showed that Britain’s total trade deficit
farmers and fishermen would suffer from having to work under bad laws. But he claimed the Lords cannot be blamed for the hold-up.
Peers inflicted 15 defeats on the Government’s flagship Brexit Bill. They have also halted progress of new trade laws that Cabinet minister Liam Fox said would be crucial if Britain leaves without a deal.
But Lord Fowler denied the upper chamber was overly-stuffed with Remainers.
He said “fierce” Tory peers Norman widened in the last three months of the year, by £900million to £10.4billion, after a rise in imports of goods.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that funding protections on health, international aid and defence budgets mean other public spending will continue to be curbed.
Ben Zaranko, a research economist at the think-tank, said: “The Government has already committed to increase day-to-day NHS spending by £20billion over the next five years.
“Even though the latest plans have overall day-to-day spending increasing over that time, this wouldn’t be enough even to cover the commitment in full.
“This suggests yet more years of austerity for many public services – albeit at a much slower pace than the last nine years.”
Tebbit, Norman Lamont and Peter Lilley put up a staunch defence.
“They get a fair whack when it comes to the debates,” he said. “It’s a fair debate.”
Lord Fowler had been pushing for major reforms to curb the size of the upper chamber but admitted there was a “bit of persuasion to be done”.
A voluntary system for cutting peers means there has been a fall of about 55 compared to a year ago.
The total is about 785 at the moment and Lord Fowler wants it