Scots could derail May’s Brexit Bill
THERESA May was facing ‘legislative war’ over Brexit last night as diehard Remainers in the Commons, Lords and Scotland prepared to thwart her strategy for a clean EU exit.
The Prime Minister made Brexit the centrepiece of a slimmed-down Queen’s Speech yesterday, with plans for eight major pieces of legislation designed to take back control from Brussels.
Mrs May told the Commons she was committed to ‘delivering the will of the British people’, with a series of Bills that will end free movement, allow Britain to forge its own trade deals and restore powers that have been ceded to Brussels for 40 years.
But Brexit opponents seized on the Prime Minister’s weakened authority in the wake of her election setback to warn they will fight her
‘every step of the way’. In a surprise admission, Mrs May said her Brexit plans may need the ‘consent’ of the Scottish parliament, where Nicola Sturgeon has said she will oppose any move to take Britain out of the single market.
In the Lords, pro-Remain peers claimed that Mrs May’s failure to secure a majority meant they did not have to respect Tory manifesto pledges. The Lib Dems, who have more than 100 peers, said Mrs May would face ‘legislative war’ over Brexit. And in the Commons, proRemain Tories warned they could vote with Labour unless the PM agrees to ‘compromise’. The row came as:
Mrs May was forced to rip up the Tory manifesto, ditching pledges to bring back grammar schools, scrap the winter fuel allowance, end free school dinners and repeal the foxhunting ban;
The Prime Minister’s deputy Damian Green admitted the Tories may fail to seal a Commons pact with the Democratic Unionist party, leaving Mrs May without a majority.
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appeared to have been shelved after the Queen made no mention of it when setting out her plans to Parliament;
Mrs May prepared for bruising Brexit talks in Brussels today where she will set out a ‘generous’ offer to protect the rights of 3.2 million EU citizens living in the UK;
The Prime Minister apologised to residents of Grenfell Tower for ‘a failure of the state – local and national – to help people when they needed it most’;
Government sources warned that plans for a new runway at Heathrow could be defeated in the Commons;
Jeremy Corbyn claimed Labour was now ‘ not merely an opposition but a government in waiting’.
Eurosceptic Tories hailed the Queen’s Speech for its clear focus on Brexit and Mrs May’s determination to drive it through.
Former Cabinet minister John Redwood said: ‘ This is perhaps the most important Queen’s Speech that I’ve ever seen in my time as a Member of Parliament because there is this fundamental legislation to give this Parliament back, on behalf of the people, powers over all our law making.’
Of 27 Bills and draft Bills announced for the two-year session, Brexit accounts for eight. These include the flagship Repeal Bill, which will transpose existing EU regulations into British law to prevent a legal ‘cliff edge’ when Britain leaves in 2019. Officials said a new Immigration Bill would ‘allow the Government to end the EU’s rules on free movement’ and establish its own controls for the first time in decades.
A spokesman for Mrs May said she remained ‘fully committed’ to the target of reducing net immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’.
The scale of Mrs May’s legislative challenge was underlined when she acknowledged it was ‘possible’ she may need the ‘consent’ of the Scottish Parliament for the Repeal Bill. Government sources confirmed it was likely to need a so- called ‘legislative consent motion’ from Holyrood.
While the Scottish Parlia- ment cannot veto Brexit, any move by Westminster to ride roughshod over its views could spark a constitutional crisis.
The SNP’s Brexit spokesman Michael Russell said the party would refuse to give consent if any powers in devolved areas, such as fishing and farming, go from Brussels to Westminster. He described the Government’s stance as ‘deeply concerning’.
In the Commons, the pro-EU Tory grandee Kenneth Clarke warned that Mrs May would fail to get her legislation through unless she backed down over issues such as the single market.He told MPs that the votes of the DUP would not be enough to guarantee a majority on Brexit unless there was ‘some sort of compromise’ on the Tory benches.
Mr Corbyn also suggested Labour would fight the Tories over the detail of the Brexit legislation. He told MPs: ‘We will use every opportunity to vote down Government policies that have failed to win public support.’
And Mrs May was facing problems in the Lords. Under the Salisbury Convention – an agreement designed to prevent manifesto pledges being blocked in the Lords – peers do not oppose measures in a ruling party’s manifesto. But senior Lib Dems said this did not now apply because Mrs May had failed to win a majority.
The convention dates back to the 1940s when a majority Labour government in the Commons was hugely outnumbered in the Lords. No 10 said yesterday lawyers believed it still applied despite the Tories’ failure to win a majority.