Lords’ Brexit amendments are a V-sign to voters that could destabilise the leaving process
There is no need for peers to amend a simple, four-line bill - especially when there is such a consensus in the Commons
WITH all the fuss around the Brexit bill, you would be forgiven for thinking this was a complex and long-winded document.
In fact, it’s only four lines long — perhaps the shortest I have ever seen.
It also has a simple, singular and clearly expressed purpose, which is to give effect to the vote last June in which the British people decided to leave the EU.
So simple, that the bill passed the Commons with majorities larger than the Government’s overall majority.
Despite that, peers decided to amend it. Not once, but twice.
Tomorrow, the Commons — the elected part of Parliament — will get the legislation back from the Lords to trigger Article 50. This is the mechanism to get us out of the EU.
Nine months after we voted to leave, and weeks after MPs passed this bill, the unelected Lords have finally given it back to us.
Yet in doing so they have ignored the large majority in the elected House and, despite being warned that they risked destroying the purpose of the bill, they defiantly added to it.
This legislation is so simple that the bill passed through the Commons with ease. It was also heavily laced with warnings to the Lords not to defy the will of the British people.
Despite this, last week the unelected Lords decided to change the bill with two major additions.
The first would give EU citizens exclusive rights to remain in the UK after Brexit. Let me explain what this appalling amendment means.
It would allow EU citizens to stay in the UK after we leave yet, astonishingly, would not help any UK citizens living in, say, France or Spain to stay in those countries.
This change would essentially abandon British expats.
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Some days ago I found myself in discussion with a German journalist about this ludicrous Lords amendment.
He had the nerve to lecture me on Britain’s responsibilities to the EU and said the Lords’ amendment had somehow rescued Britain’s “honour”.
Yet when I pressed him on the corresponding rights of British citizens living in the EU, he ignored it.
When I asked why the EU and Germany dismissed Theresa May’s generous offer to grant rights for both EU citizens and UK citizens ahead of negotiations, he dismissed that too.
I don’t take kindly to anyone lecturing us about seizing the moral high ground, least of all someone from another country which refuses to do the same for British citizens.
But it was even more sickening to hear the Lords make the same outrageous statements about our moral responsibility to EU nationals in the UK, without shedding even a crocodile tear for UK citizens in the EU.
One peer went so far as to liken EU citizens to the plight of Ugandan Asians fleeing that butcher Idi Amin.
Comparing people living under rule of law, in a strong democracy, to those fleeing persecution and torture showed real disrespect for British values and was a new low, even for the Lords.
Worse still, the Lords’ meddling didn’t stop there. They now want Parliament to have the right to turn down any agreement made between the UK Government and the EU — giving themselves the power to block Brexit.
This would mean that Parliament, including unelected peers, could defy the referendum result and hurl the clearly expressed view of British people back in their faces.
That means they could, in effect, veto the UK’s departure from the EU by the back door if they did not like the outcome.
That would bind the PM’s hands, almost certainly scupper the chances of a fair deal that satisfied both parties and defy the decision of the British people in the referendum.
This latest change by the Lords deliberately sends the strongest of signals to the EU negotiators that a bad deal would have the effect of stopping us leaving the EU.
The EU would know that all they needed to do was prevaricate as they negotiated with the UK in bad faith and this would ensure the British Parliament could reverse the result of the referendum.
No, these changes are a lot of nonsense.
In effect, this is a self-serving process of breast-beating, resulting in damaging gestures of defiance by the unelected chamber.
They are in no way a genuine attempt either to defend Parliament or protect the rights of EU citizens.
It is time to get on with leaving the EU, so tomorrow my colleagues in all parties should reject both amendments and trigger Article 50 as soon as possible.
For if we don’t vote to reject the Lords’ changes, Parliament would be flicking two fingers at the British people and their ancient and vital democratic rights.