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In unprecedented move, glowering PM sits in on crucial Brexit debate

THERESA May faced down anti-Brexit peers yesterday as they lined up to attack leaving the EU. In an unprecedented move which stunned the House of Lords, the Prime Minister attended the opening of its debate on the legislation needed to take Britain out of the EU.

She sat on the steps of the Queen’s throne as Labour’s leader in the upper house, Baroness Smith, attacked her maxim ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Downing Street sources denied Mrs May was trying to ‘intimidate’ peers into toning down their opposition to Brexit, saying she was ‘just listening respectfully to the debate’.

But her presence in the Lords served as a stark reminder to peers that Brexit was backed by both last year’s referendum and a thumping majority of MPs in the Commons.

She is thought to be the first sitting PM to ever sit in on a Lords debate. Baroness Royall, Labour’s former leader in the Lords, described her decision to attend as ‘amazing’, saying she had ‘never known a prime minister attend’ a Lords debate on any issue.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also attended the Lords debate last night as ministers made it clear they would not accept meddling in the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill, which gives Mrs May the power to take Britain out of the EU.

Former Tory leader Lord Hague said any attempt to frustrate the referendum result would lead to the most ‘bitter, potentially endless conflict’ seen in Britain for decades.

But despite the warnings, proBrussels peers lined up to warn they would do everything they could to frustrate or even block Brexit.

Labour’s Lord Cashman, a former EastEnders actor, said he had been ‘inundated with emails to oppose Brexit’. He made no mention of the £390,000 pension pot he amassed during his 15 years as an MEP.

He vowed to ‘fight and fight again’ to block Brexit, saying any ‘decent society’ would respect the views of the minority who voted to keep Britain in the EU.

Former Labour business secretary Lord Mandelson also indicated he may vote against Brexit if amendments designed to keep Britain in the single market fail.

He built up a £673,000 pension pot during his time as EU trade commissioner, but insisted this did not influence his views on Brexit. ‘I was a Remainer, not because of my pension rights but because I am a patriot – a patriot, not a nationalist,’ he said. He said claims that the Government could negotiate a good trade deal were a ‘fraud on the public’.

And he backed Tony Blair’s controversial claim that voters might change their minds about Brexit and should be given a second referendum to overturn the result of the first.

A record 200 peers have put in to speak during the two-day debate, most of them opposed to Brexit.

Former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson was heckled as he urged peers not to frustrate Brexit by tabling amendments to the legislation.

Opposition peers shouted ‘shame’ as Lord Lawson told them: ‘In the unprecedented circumstances in which we find ourselves, I have to say that were the House to entertain any of the amendments it would have embarked on an ill-advised, improper and fundamentally unconstitutional manoeuvre.’

But Lord Newby, Lib Dem leader in the Lords, said the Government’s approach to Brexit was ‘little short of disastrous’, adding: ‘To sit on our hands in these circumstances is both unthinkable and unconscionable.’

The Lib Dems are backing amendments designed to keep the UK in the single market and force a second referendum.

Baroness Smith, Labour’s leader in the Lords, also criticised the Government’s approach to Brexit, but indicated most Labour peers would not try to block the legislation.

Opening the debate, Lords leader Baroness Evans of Bowes Park said the Government had a ‘strong mandate’ from the people and elected MPs to trigger Article 50.

‘Bitter, potentially endless conflict’

SHE could not speak in the House of Lords yesterday as the debate began on triggering Brexit but, with her very presence, Theresa May sent an unmistakable message: defy me at your peril!

Few politicians can make so clear a statement without saying a word. Just in case any ermine-clad peers had forgotten their lack of any democratic mandate, here was an emissary from the elected Commons, representing 17.4million Leave voters – over a million of them Scots – and countless Remainers who accept the result.

As he proved yesterday, that latter group includes former Tory leader Lord Hague, who warned that reversing the referendum result would ‘open up the most protracted, bitter, potentially endless conflict in British society and politics that we have seen since the decades of debate on Irish home rule’.