FURY AT NEW BID TO WRECK EU EXIT
PEERS provoked anger last night by plotting an assault on Theresa May’s Brexit Bill in the House of Lords.
Labour and Lib Dem members of the upper house promised a deluge of amendments to delay the legislation needed to give the Prime Minister power to activate the European Union’s Article 50 departure clause.
Their bid to tamper with the Government’s EU (Notification of
Withdrawal) Bill is expected to lead to a stand-off between the Lords and the Commons that could upset her schedule of triggering the start of Brexit talks by the end of next month.
A string of peers including Lord Newby, the Lib Dem’s leader in the Lords and Labour frontbencher Baroness Chakrabarti yesterday threatened to amend the Bill when Parliament returns from a half-term break on February 20.
One potential ambush is expected to include an attempt to force the Lords to vote on whether EU migrants already living in Britain should have their right to stay guaranteed.
Commons Leader David Lidington urged peers to respect the overwhelming backing for the Brexit legislation expressed by MPs.
Feared
He said: “I hope at the end of the day they will accept that as an unelected chamber they should in the end agree that the will of the British electorate as a whole and the view of the House of Commons overwhelmingly, should be accepted by them.”
Mr Lidington hoped the Bill would be on the statute book by mid-March, allowing Mrs May to trigger Article 50 by the end of the month.
His prediction dashed hopes from some Eurosceptics that the Prime Minister will formally request the triggering of Article 50 at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on March 9.
Former Tory chancellor Lord Lamont feared peers were tabling amendments in order to scupper the Government’s negotiations.
He said: “I think a lot of the amendments that are put forward are really designed to obstruct the Bill and everybody knows that if the Bill is delayed that will scupper the whole negotiation.
“I’m not saying that’s Lord Newby’s motive but I think it’s the motive of some of the people coming forward with these amendments – it’s to get embroiled in a time-wasting, time-delaying exercise.”
He said any perceived blocking by the upper house would cause outrage and could prompt calls for reform.
Senior Tory MP Oliver Letwin, a former minister, said that the Lords “should not come back with amendments”.
He said: “There were hundreds of amendments, literally, put down in the House of Commons. They were all junk.
“And they were all trying one way or another to derail the process.
“The matter is now signed and sealed and should now be settled and not derailed by the House of Lords.” Lord Newby claimed the amendments would not stop the Prime Minister triggering Article 50 within her timetable.
He added: “If you take the amendments we are going to be pressing they don’t have that effect at all.
“Passing these amendments does not delay the process for a second.”
Labour peer Baroness Smith also argued that Lords amendment would “improve” the Brexit Bill without wrecking the legislation.