Tory peers join Remoaner rebellion

NINE Tory peers have joined an alliance of Labour and the Liberal Democrats to try to undermine Brexit in the House of Lords.

The rebels have put their names to a string of hostile amendments to crucial legislation which returns to Parliament today.

Ministers are braced for defeat on a string of votes on the EU Withdrawal Bill over six days of debate in the coming weeks.

Among the rebels are Lord Patten – a Cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher and a former EU Commissioner – who has backed an amendment apparently designed to try to force Britain to stay in the customs union after we leave the EU.

Other rebels include Viscount Hailsham, who as Douglas Hogg was agriculture minister under John Major, former pensions minister Baroness Altmann, Baroness Wheatcroft, the former editor of The Sunday Telegraph and the Duke of Wellington, a former Tory MEP.

Rebel amendments include an attempt to keep Britain inside the EU’s human rights laws, the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Theresa May has made leaving the customs union one of her Brexit red lines, because staying in would stop Britain from negotiating trade deals around the world.

Leave campaigners argue that setting our own trade policy will be one of the big advantages of leaving.