May warned of looming Brexit constitutional crisis
Labour and Liberal Democrats threaten to derail Government’s EU exit plan in the Lords
THERESA MAY is facing a constitutional crisis after Labour and the Liberal Democrats threatened to use the House of Lords to water down Brexit.
The Prime Minister is facing a battle to get the crucial legislation through the upper chamber after it emerged that peers may seek to ignore a 72-year convention and block new laws paving the way for Britain leaving the single market and EU customs union.
The Salisbury Convention states that manifesto commitments made by a governing party should not be blocked or significantly altered by the Lords.
However, within hours of yesterday’s Queen’s Speech, which set out the various Brexit bills to be presented before Parliament in the coming months – opposition parties began to argue that the convention does not apply as Mrs May did not win a majority and has not agreed to govern in coalition.
The legitimacy of the convention is set to spark a major constitutional row between legal experts.
Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is demanding that a separate vote be held in Scotland to determine whether Mrs May can repeal EU laws – a crucial step in the Brexit process. Downing Street said last night that the legal role of the Scottish Parliament was also still being considered.
The growing constitutional row over Brexit has added to the pressure on the Prime Minister to secure a formal deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that would add to the legitimacy of her Government. Yesterday, as the talks continued to drag on, it emerged that the DUP was demanding a £2billion payment to Northern Ireland, and a guarantee to end austerity, as the price of the deal.
Mrs May put Brexit at the heart of her agenda as she set out her plans for the next two years, but the Prime Minister was forced to abandon flagship policies including new grammar schools and plans to pay for social care.
The Queen delivered yesterday’s speech with the Prince of Wales by her side after the Duke of Edinburgh was taken to hospital on Tuesday night suffering from an infection caused by a pre-existing condition.
Addressing the House of Commons, the Prime Minister acknowledged that she now faced a divided country but said she was determined to “see Brexit through”.
“The election showed that, as it faces the big challenges of our future, our country is divided – red versus blue, young versus old, Leave versus Remain,” she said.
“The test for all of us is whether we choose to reflect divisions or help the country overcome them. With humility and resolve, this Government will seek to do the latter.
“We will do what is in the national
interest and we will work with anyone in any party that is prepared to do the same.”
She also pledged to “seek to build a wide consensus” on the Brexit negotiations amid calls for her to soften her plans.
Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary,
backs the Prime Minister’s agenda and questions whether Labour would try to block the result of the referendum.
“Will they try to frustrate the will of the people, and block the Brexit bills?” he says. “The Tories got 56 more seats than Labour. We will … govern the country with drive and determination, and these measures deserve support.”
Last night, Mr Johnson ruled out running for the Tory leadership until Brexit is delivered in 2019. He said he would not run while negotiations were ongoing, telling Channel 4 News “we have to get on and deliver on the priorities of the people”.
The Prime Minister flies to Brussels today for what EU officials have warned could be a “humiliating” encounter when she holds talks on Brexit with EU leaders for the first time since losing her majority. She will set out plans to give EU citizens legal rights in this country after Brexit to help curry favour with her European counterparts.
Mrs May will be given a short slot at a summit dinner before being escorted from the room while Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, updates the other 27 leaders on last Monday’s opening day of Brexit talks. A formal paper setting out the UK plan is expected on Monday.
EU diplomats warned Mrs May could expect a muted reception at the dinner, in part as a signal that she will not be allowed to circumvent the multilateral negotiating process led by Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator.
“The election has thrown the entire process back up in the air, and no one thanks Mrs May for that,” a senior EU diplomat who will attend the talks told the Telegraph. “The reality is that no one knows where Britain stands – or indeed
‘We will use every opportunity to vote down government policies that failed to win public support’
will stand – on the key issues. We want to get on with it.”
Mrs May now faces a series of potential roadblocks before her key Brexit policies can be enshrined in law, in a move which will further weaken her negotiating hand in Brussels.
The biggest hurdle in her path appears to be a row over whether peers are duty-bound to back new laws that were promised in the Tory manifesto.
Downing Street’s own legal advice on the Salisbury Convention was that it still applied, but a joint Commons and Lords commission in 2006 failed to reach any conclusion in the case of minority governments. Liberal Democrat peers insisted yesterday that they were not bound by the convention, and a Labour source in the Lords said that while its policy was that “the will of the Commons must be respected”, individual Labour peers could decide to follow the example of the Liberal Democrats.
The Conservatives have only 254 of the 808 members of the Lords, meaning the upper chamber could hold up legislation by repeatedly amending it and sending it back to the Commons.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, made clear his own plans to exploit Mrs May’s weak position as he told the Commons: “We will use every opportunity to vote down government policies that failed to win public support... we are ready to offer real strong and stable leadership in the interests of the many not the few. And we will test this Government’s Brexit strategy, and what legislation comes forward, against that standard.”
In the Commons, the Liberal Democrats and Labour will try to bring down the Government within the week by tabling amendments they hope will defeat the Queen’s Speech.
In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon will demand the right for a vote in Holyrood on the Repeal Bill and other legislation in the Queen’s Speech, creating a potential constitutional problem.