Flagship Bill is defeated in Lords

The government has suffered another heavy defeat in the Lords over flagship Brexit legislation as peers backed stricter controls on ministerial regulation-making powers.

Voting was 349 to 221, majority 128, for a cross-party amendment to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.

It was the sixth defeat inflicted by peers since the Bill’s report stage began just a week ago.

This time the issue was so-called Henry VIII powers which allow ministers to amend EU rules and regulations when they are transferred on to the UK statute book post-brexit with what critics claim is little parliamentary scrutiny.

Spearheading the change to the Bill, former Commons clerk Lord Lisvane said it currently contained “heavyweight” powers for ministers to make regulations subject to an “inadequate” subjective test.

The independent cross-bench peer said instead of ministers being able to introduce postbrexit regulations where “appropriate”, the bar should be set at where it was “necessary”.

But Tory former Brexit minister Lord Bridges of Headley said the key question was whether the government was acting in a reasonable way to ensure it had the powers necessary to deliver a “smooth and orderly Brexit”, adding: “I believe the minister has moved enough and should be given our support.”

Labour former attorney general Lord Goldsmith said: “If this House has a responsibility it is, I would respectfully suggest, to ensure that we do not give the Executive more power than is necessary in order to achieve their objectives – this amendment would achieve that.”

Brexit Minister Lord Callanan said: “It should not be the role of a minister to be a statutory firefighter, dousing deficiencies in the statute book only where it is absolutely necessary. Instead I would argue that a more proactive role is the only way that we can ensure the best possible outcomes for the statute book.”