BREXIT-BASHING
Now peers vote to keep us shackled to the single market – with millions paid to Brussels
UNELECTED peers last night launched a bid to thwart Brexit as they voted to keep Britain shackled to the EU inside the single market.
The move to force the country into a Norway-style deal would keep our borders open and mean huge sums of money continue to be handed over to Brussels.
Peers were warned that backing continued membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) would ‘fly in the face of the biggest democratic vote in our history’ and cause untold damage to the reputation of the House of Lords.
But the amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill was passed by 247 to 218.
Peers who voted against the Government included Lord Mandelson, Lord Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock, Lord Heseltine and Lord Patten, who all have EU pensions because of their previous roles in Brussels.
Labour’s frontbench had urged its peers not to support the amendment, but 83 joined the revolt, and 17 Tory peers rebelled.
The defeat, the 13th inflicted by peers on the flagship Brexit legislation, will provide a fresh headache for Theresa May who will need to overturn the amendment when the Bill returns to the Commons.
It will embolden diehard Remain cam- paigners who will now have fresh hope of putting the option of remaining in the single market back on the table.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faces a rebellion, with dozens of his Europhile backbenchers likely to join the effort to undermine a clean break from the EU.
Yesterday amid heated exchanges in the Lords, Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Forsyth accused his fellow peers of ‘seeking to undermine’ the Government’s negotiating position by seeking continued EEA membership.
The EEA allows for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the European single market.
‘The truth of the matter is there are a number of people in this House who wish to reverse the decision of the British people,’ he said.
The Conservative peer argued that the amendment would ‘fly in the face of the biggest democratic vote in our history’, adding: ‘The British people voted overwhelmingly and this House is seeking to undermine that vote and in so doing damaging its own standing and reputation in the country.’
Brexit minister Lord Callanan warned that remaining in the EEA ‘would not deliver control of our borders or our laws’. He said: ‘On borders it would mean that we would have to continue to accept all four freedoms of the single market, including freedom of movement.
‘On laws it would mean the UK having to implement new EU legislation over which, in future, we will have little influence and of course we will have no vote. This will not deliver on the British people’s desire as expressed in the referendum to have more direct control over decisions that affect their daily lives.’
But Lord Mandelson, the Labour exCabinet minister and former European trade commissioner, claimed that the impact of leaving the single market would be ‘savage’ and leave the banking sector ‘hit for six’.
‘Our economy simply cannot afford this loss,’ he added.
In an earlier defeat yesterday, peers were accused of trying to delay Brexit as they voted to stop the departure date of March 29, 2019, being enshrined in law.
Europhile aristocrat the Duke of Wellington led peers in their twelfth defeat of the EU Withdrawal Bill. Ten rebel Tories backed the amendment, which was passed by 311 votes to 233. It overturns the Prime Minister’s decision to write the date into legislation.
Ahead of the vote, Labour’s Lord Grocott told fellow peers that the world outside would see the move as designed to ‘put further down the track the date on which we shall be leaving the EU’. He warned of a ‘chasm’ between the spread of opinion in the Lords and in the country at large, and said the repeated defeats made it appear the Lords was trying to delay, block or reverse the referendum decision.
The Duke of Wellington claimed he was trying to help the Government in its negotiations by giving ministers greater flexibility.
He served as a Tory MEP in the 1980s before taking his seat as a hereditary peer in the Lords in 2015.
His wife, Princess Antonia von Preussen, is the great-granddaughter of the last German Emperor.
In yet another defeat yesterday, peers backed an amendment to allow Britain’s continued participation in EU agencies by 298 votes to 227, a majority of 71. However, Lord Callanan dismissed the amendment as ‘useless’.
The Prime Minister last week promised a ‘robust’ response when the Bill returns to the Commons. Government ministers have accused peers of attempting to ‘thwart’ the country’s departure from the EU.
‘Will not deliver control of borders’