Europhile Lib Dems have just 2% of MPs – but make up 12.5% of the Lords

THE Liberal Democrats make up one in eight peers in the Lords – 12.5 per cent – despite having less than 2 per cent of seats in the Commons.

The party can call on 98 out of the Upper House’s 782 members, compared with 12 MPs out of 650, helping the Lib Dems inflict Brexit defeats on the Government.

On Tuesday 84 of the party’s peers voted for continued membership of the European Economic Area.

And earlier this month Lib Dem Lord Roberts of Llandudno compared Theresa May’s handling of the Brexit negotiations with the leadership of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the former chancellor Lord Lamont said the Lib Dems had ‘undue influence’ and a ‘disproportionate role’ in the Lords.

‘With just 12 MPs, the party has little impact on the Brexit debates in the Commons, but it is entirely different in the Upper House, where there are nearly 100 Liberal Democrat peers, almost all of them devoted to the fight against Brexit,’ he said. ‘Without this phalanx of die-hard Remainers, fewer of the pro-EU amendments would have been passed. The Liberal Democrats’ disproportionate role in the Lords is not only unfair but it is also riddled with hypocrisies.’

The Lords, helped by the Lib Dems, have inflicted more than 14 defeats as the Bill makes its passage through the Upper House.

The party has taken a firm stance against Brexit and leader Vince Cable has called for a referendum on the eventual deal.

Though the amendments are not binding, they will cause a headache for the Government – and Labour – when the Bill returns to the Commons.

The amendment, moved by Labour’s Lord Waheed Alli, was also backed by 83 Labour peers, 50 crossbenchers and 17 Tories.

The amendment requires the Government to make participation in the EEA a ‘negotiating objective’.

The amendment will be problematic for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has refused to commit Labour to keeping the UK in the single market.