Lords gear up for Brexit bill battle

LONDON: Britain’s House of Lords begins scrutiny yesterday of a key piece of Brexit legislation, threatening another headache for Prime Minister Theresa May as she battles criticism from her own party.

Almost 200 peers have requested to speak during the two-day debate on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, many of them likely to be critical of its provisions to smooth Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The bill would repeal the 1972 act that made Britain a member of the bloc and transfer four decades of EU regulations onto the British statute books.

May’s government suf fered one defeat when the bill went through the elected lower House of Commons late last year, after MPs demanded a vote on the final exit deal struck with Brussels.

Peers in the unelected upper House of Lords are threatening further amendments, including on new powers for ministers to amend the EU laws as they are moved across, which a Lords committee said were ‘wholly unacceptable’.

The main opposition Labour Party and the pro- EU Liberal Democrats will also seek to reject the government’s attempt to enshrine Brexit day in the bill.

Britain is due to leave on March 29, 2019, but the opposition argue the government may need some flexibility if the negotiations with Brussels on a departure deal run over.

May’s Conservative Party commands a slim majority in the House of Commons thanks to the support of a small Northern Irish party, but is outnumbered in the Lords.

Labour spokeswoman Baroness Dianne Hayter said this week’s debate would give “clear indications ... of the strength of feeling within the house that this bill is not fit for purpose”.

The Lib Dems, who have only a handful of MPs but a strong presence in the Lords, said they would also push for an amendment on a second referendum on any final Brexit deal.

Their leader in the chamber, Lord Dick Newby, said that 90 per cent of the peers seeking to speak in the debate opposed the bill on legal, constitutional or political grounds.

“It’s going to be very heartpounding for the government,” he said. — AFP