Rees-Mogg says peers are playing with fire over laws

THE FUTURE of the House of Lords could be in doubt as peers are “playing with fire” by trying to thwart Brexit, Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned.

The Tory MP, leader of the influential European Research Group of Conservatives, said it was now a case of the “peers against the people” after the Government’s Brexit legislation suffered a series of defeats in the upper chamber.

His comments came after a petition calling for a referendum on abolishing the House of Lords passed the 100,000-signature mark, which could trigger a debate in Parliament.

Mr Rees-Mogg, speaking yesterday in Parliament at an event organised by the Open Europe think-tank, said peers “have to decide whether they love ermine or the EU more”.

In a series of forthright interventions, Mr Rees-Mogg said giving preferential immigration treatment to EU citizens after Brexit would be a “racist” policy.

He also described Theresa May’s approach to Brexit as “enigmatic” and labelled the Government’s proposal for a customs partnership with the EU “completely cretinous”.

The Government’s plans for Brexit have been dealt a series of blows in the Lords, with peers inflicting a massive defeat on the issue of leaving the customs union.

Mr Rees-Mogg claimed that peers were breaching the convention that the House of Lords should not prevent a Government implementing commitments made in its election manifesto.

And he said the Prime Minister had made it “absolutely clear” that she would not accept remaining in a customs union after Brexit. The Government is expected to try to overturn the amendment in the Commons.

In a message to the peers he accused of seeking to “thwart” the referendum result, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “It’s striking that 100,000 people can sign a petition so quickly.

“I think their lordships are playing with fire and it would be a shame to burn down a historic house.”