The Lords will have their say on Brexit

Posted on April 16 2018

As the FT reports this morning:

The House of Lords is expected to vote for Britain to remain in an EU customs union this week, inflicting a damaging defeat on the government. The upper chamber of the British parliament is currently debating the EU withdrawal bill, which lays the legal ground for Brexit.

The Lords are expected to support, perhaps by a majority of more than 50, an amendment sponsored by Chris Patten, a former Conservative chairman, calling for the government to negotiate an arrangement “which enables the United Kingdom to continue participating in a customs union with the EU”.

I am not surprised, for three reasons.

First, the Lords can see the sense of doing this, which is the minimum required to stop an absolutely shambolic Brexit. In itself they support this amendment.

Second,  May's contempt for parliament over Syria will be evidenced in the Lords as well as the Commons. Whatever authority May had is ebbing away.

Third, many will feel, as James Comey does of Trump, that May is no longer morally fit to lead: there are just too many reasons to think she lacks any of the necessary judgement to be prime minister. This will be a perfect chance to deliver a protest vote.

It is my sincere hope that the Commons takes note.

It is an even stronger hope that they will find the same resolve on the single market.

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2 Responses

  1. Ken Mathieson says:
    April 16 2018 at 10:33 pm

    If you need a measure of the PM’s lack of morality just look at the Home Office’s policies and behaviour over the last 10 years and, in particular, today’s revelations in Parliament and the media about the treatment of Afro-Caribbean descendants of the Windrush generation, not to mention the earlier deployment of the infamous trucks with their threats of “go home or be deported”. The Home Office’s culture has been heavily shaped by May’s lengthy tenure of the office of Home Secretary and some of its ruthless enforcement tactics surely result from her consistent failure to meet her own targets while in office.

    There have been calls for the resignation of the current Home Secretary but surely that’s the wrong target?