BREXIT GLOVES ARE Davis is ready for almighty OFF! scrap with Lords over Article 50

DISASTER CLAIMS FALSE, ADMITS UKIP LEADER

BREXIT minister David Davis has admitted he’s ready for a huge scrap withe the House of Lords over Article 50 legislation.

The Brexit Secretary said he expected some parliamentary “ping pong”, with the Bill being sent back and forth between the Commons and the Lords.

And he suggested he expected peers to defeat the Government and make changes to the tightly-worded legislation.

But he insisted the legislation would clear in time for Theresa May to meet her deadline of triggering Article 50 and beginning the formal Brexit process by the end of March.

Mr Davis also moved to reassure EU citizens living in the UK that the Government wanted discussion of their rights – and those of Britons on the continent – to be the first item on the negotiating table.

That would cover issues including social support and healthcare, he said.

Speaking at a press conference in Stockholm with Sweden’s EU minister Ann Linde, Mr Davis highlighted how the European Union (Notification Of Withdrawal) Bill had got passed through the Commons “verystr aightforwardly” with “very solid majorities”.

Mr Davis, who has said peers have a “patriotic duty” to pass the Bill, insisted they would be allowed to do their job of scrutinising the legislation.

With the Government lacking a majority in the upper house, he acknowledged there could be defeats for ministers.

He said the Commons had reached “very clear decisions” and “because of that I expect the upper LESS chilly but rather cloudy for most, with many areas seeing some rain. Temperatures will be around 8C Edinburgh, 10C Belfast, 9C Manchester, Cardiff and London. Cloudy with a little sunshine and some isolated spells of light rain in the west. It’ll be milder but chilly in the south where fog is slow to clear.

Temperatures will be in the region of 9C Edinburgh, 11C Belfast, 10C Manchester, 11C Cardiff and London.

OUTLOOK: Not bad house, it will do its job of scrutiny, we’ll have some passing backwards and forward, we call it ping pong, you can imagine why, backwards and forwards of the Bill, but I expect that to be resolved in good time before the end of March.”

He was “confident” that Article 50 would be triggered on the Government’s timetable, but that did not mean the formal notification would be given at the scheduled summit of EU leaders on March 9. LET’S PLAY: Brexit Secretary expects game of ping pong with Bill UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has admitted claims he lost close personal friends in the Hillsborough disaster are false.

Speaking to Liverpool radio station Radio City Talk on Tuesday, he was asked about claims on his website that he had lost “close personal friends” in the 1989 disaster.

He said: “I haven’t lost a close personal friend, I’ve lost someone who I know.”

He said he did not know who had written the claims, which appeared on his website in 2011.

He said: “I haven’t put that out, that is wrong.”

In an entry on the website in August 2011, Mr Nuttall (left) called for the Government to release files on Hillsborough and was quoted as saying: “Without them being made public we will never get to the bottom of that appalling tragedy when 96 Liverpool fans, including close personal friends of mine, lost their lives.”

Mr Nuttall previously said he was “hurt, angry and disgusted” after an article in The Guardian looked to cast doubt on his claim he was present when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death.

The Ukip leader, who would have been 12 at the time of the disaster, has said he was at the match with his father and two uncles.