Rebel peers to fight May over Brexit

THERESA MAY’S threat to walk away from Brussels without a trade deal if Brexit talks end in failure faces a fresh challenge in the House of Lords tomorrow.

A group of rebel peers will try to change the Brexit Bill to force the Prime Minister to give Parliament a vote on Britain’s final exit terms regardless of the outcome of negotiations. Their plan follows claims that anti-Brexit MPs were duped by the Government when they mounted a similar ambush in the Commons two weeks ago.

Some Tory MPs cried foul after backing the Government at the last minute, only to hear Brexit Minister David Jones rule out the idea of Mrs May going back to the negotiating table if there was no EU deal.

The rebel peers hope to win a vote on the issue to gain further concessions from the Government.

The move will be led by Lord Pannick, the crossbench peer who led the successful High Court bid to stop the Government signing Article 50 – which triggers Britain’s twoyear departure from the EU – without the go-ahead from Parliament.

He will be backed by former diplomat Lord Kerr, the author of Article 50, who has said that leaving the EU without a deal would be the ‘worst possible outcome for Britain’ creating ‘legal chaos’ and uncertainty for businesses.

The bill for Britain’s exit could rise by more than £50 billion and it was ‘naïve’ to believe the economy would reach the ‘sunlit uplands’ with a swift trade deal with America, he added.

Lib Dem Lord Newby hit back at threats by some Tory MPs to scrap the Lords if it tried to block Brexit.

He told The Mail on Sunday: We will not simply wave the Brexit Bill through. There is no point having the Lords if it does not exercise its constitutional powers to scrutinise legislation. Mrs May blows hot and cold. If she had any sense she would accept our amendments.’

But a senior Conservative pro-Brexit peer said it would be a ‘terrible mistake’ if colleagues tried to overturn the result of the referendum. ‘The referendum proved that the elite who sit in their ermine cloaks on the benches of the Lords are out of touch. It is time they realised it.’