Rudd’s last-ditch bid to head off Brexit defeat in the Lords
MINISTERS are braced for a defeat over Brexit in the House of Lords tonight, despite a last-ditch plea by the Home Secretary.
Amber Rudd wrote to peers urging them not to back changes that would force Theresa May to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK after we cut ties with Brussels.
She said there was ‘absolutely no question of treating EU citizens with anything other than the utmost respect’ – and said Mrs May wanted to make the issue ‘a priority’ in negotiation.
But Baroness Smith, Labour’s leader in the upper house, described the Government’s approach as ‘shameful’.
A Lords source last night said the Government was ‘likely to face a handsome defeat’, with about a dozen Tory peers set to join Labour, Liberal Democrats and crossbench peers in defying the Government. The amendment would be the first change to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill which gives Mrs May authority to trigger Article 50.
It would force the Government to guarantee the rights of 3.2 million EU citizens living here, even though Germany and other member states are refusing to give similar reassurances to 1.2 million Britons living in Europe before the formal Brexit talks begin. Miss Rudd’s unusual move came as Boris Johnson hit back at Sir John Major and Tony Blair, saying he was sick of hearing people ‘droning and moaning’ about leaving the EU.
The Foreign Secretary urged pro-Remain politicians to stop complaining about Brexit and get behind efforts to make the UK the world’s ‘great free trading nation again’. Sir John irritated senior Tories on Monday with a gloomy speech in which he labelled Brexit a ‘historic mistake’ which would wreck the economy and public services.
Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce conference in London, Mr Johnson said: ‘I feel like saying, “Come off it, sunshine.” Every generation has its prognostications of gloom. And look at us today. We are living longer than ever before. We are healthier than ever before.’ Brexit Secretary David Davis yesterday told the Cabinet they should be prepared for the possibility that the UK might fail to get a free trade deal with the EU before leaving – describing it as an ‘unlikely scenario’.
But a Downing Street spokesman said the ‘overriding message was that we are ambitious about the nature of the free trade deal we will be able to agree with the EU’.
Mrs May told ministers: ‘The message is we are not going to fail.’ Meanwhile, George Osborne issued another doom- laden warning about the risks of leaving the EU.
The former chancellor, a leading Remainer, said leaving the single market without a trade deal would be ‘the biggest single act of protectionism in the history of the United Kingdom’. He added: ‘No amount of trade deals with New Zealand are going to replace the trade that we do at the moment with our big European neighbours.’
Mr Johnson hit back, saying he anticipated a ‘fantastic free trade deal’ with Europe.
Nissan yesterday warned it could ‘adjust’ its operations in the UK if Britain leaves the customs union, which allows goods to move freely around the EU.
Senior vice-president Colin Lawther told MPs yesterday the car firm would ‘ constantly review’ its decision to produce new Qashqai and X-Trail models in Sunderland. Giving evidence to the Commons international trade committee, he said Nissan’s preferred outcome from Brexit negotiations was for Britain’s relations with the EU to ‘stay as they are’.
‘Droning and moaning’