The Lords in revolt

“Hooray for the House of Lords.” I never expected to hear those words coming from a notably left-wing friend of mine, said James Moore in The Independent. But I see his point. The Lords may be an absurd anachronism in the 21st century, an undemocratic, unelected chamber, but they’ve done something that MPS have signally failed to do: frustrate the Government’s plan to act as if it had a blank cheque to push through its Article 50 Bill, which kicks off the two-year process of leaving the EU. Last week the Lords “struck a blow” for decency by sending the Bill back to the Commons with an amendment to protect the rights of the three million EU nationals living here. And this week, led by the Tory rebel Lord Heseltine, they returned another amendment which would give Parliament a “meaningful” vote on the outcome of negotiations with the European Union. “With his streaming golden locks and his passionate, over-the-top speeches,” Heseltine was once the darling of the Tory faithful, said Matt Reeder in The Yorkshire Post. But for inflicting this historic defeat, the Tory grandee has now been sacked by Theresa May from his job as government adviser; and the Thatcherites in the party, who’ve never forgiven him for engineering Thatcher’s downfall, are rejoicing at his ousting. Not that the 83-year-old’s “defenestration” was strictly necessary, said Paul Goodman on Conservativehome.com: advisers aren’t ministers. Then again, since the “onetime Lion King has lost most of his teeth”, May ran few risks by expelling him and clearly felt that she had to put down a marker – that “as someone or other once put it, ‘there is no alternative’”. May will also do all she can to get the two amendments voted down in the Commons, said Dan Bloom in the Daily Mirror. So stand by for a long game of ping-pong between the two Houses, as the Lords keep sending amendments for the Commons to deal with. It’s going to mean a lot of late nights for their lords and ladyships, which is why Lib Dem peers have just spent some £1,000 on Argos airbeds.

The Lords are now being pilloried in the anti-european press as “enemies of the people”, said The Guardian. On the contrary, the amendment calling for MPS to have a meaningful vote is aimed at ensuring the Prime Minister is answerable to Parliament. It isn’t even controversial: the Government has orally promised such a vote already. No it hasn’t, said Liam Halligan in The Spectator. May has pledged that MPS will be entitled to reject any deal made between the UK and the EU: if they did, we would have to leave without a deal in place. The amendment introduces a quite new proposal: that if there’s no agreement, the PM can only decide to quit the EU with Parliament’s approval. This, as peers backing the amendment well know, gives the EU every incentive to offer “a stinker of a deal”, hoping that a disillusioned electorate will then allow MPS scope to reverse Brexit entirely. Most parliamentarians probably do want to stay in the EU; but they should bear in mind that the majority of the electorate does not, which is why we had a referendum in the first place.