Tonight the government suffered its second Article 50 bill defeat in the House of Lords. Peers backed an amendment calling for a ‘meaningful’ parliamentary vote on the final terms of withdrawal from the EU by 366 votes to 268. Heralding the result, Lord Heseltine said Parliament must be the ‘custodian of national sovereignty’.
The bill will now return to the Commons where Theresa May will hope to overturn the amendment, along with the issue of guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens. The government had been braced for defeat on both of these issues but regardless this now presents them with a headache — convincing pro-Remain MPs not to rebel.
It’s thought May will face the greater difficulty with the ‘meaningful vote’ amendment as although it was defeated in the Commons with a comfortable majority of 33, some MPs felt as though they had been duped. To stave off a rebellion the first time round, the government told MPs that they would be given a say on the final Brexit deal before European Parliament voted on it. However, this has not been written into the bill — and at present it is still a ‘take it or leave it’ vote. This means that if MPs reject the deal, the UK will still exit the EU — just without a deal. In contrast, the ‘meaningful’ vote amendment would give both the House of Commons and Lords the opportunity to accept or reject — in two separate votes — the final deal and could allow Parliament to delay Brexit by continuously rejecting the deal.
If the government manages to defeat the amendments in the Commons next week, May can at least take heart that there will be no protracted game of ping-pong. Lady Smith, the shadow leader in the House of Lords, has already said that if the House of Commons votes against the amendments, they will not try and add them back in. This means that should the government succeed in staving off a rebellion, May’s Article 50 timetable will remain intact.
Comments