THERESA May has warned peers not to weaken her hand in the Brexit negotiations with Brussels as UK Government ministers brace themselves for a second defeat on the Article 50 Bill in the House of Lords today.
The new flashpoint will come on the issue of MPs and peers having a so-called “meaningful vote” at the end of the process when the Prime Minister has secured a deal with the EU.
Opposition politicians want to be able to reject any agreement and force Mrs May back to the negotiating table before any deal is signed off but the PM fears this would weaken her hand in the negotiations.
She has simply offered Westminster a take it or leave it vote and made clear she would be prepared to walk away from the talks, believing no deal would be better than a bad one.
However, some believe that EU member states could concoct a bad deal in the hope MPs might even seek to reverse the referendum result.
The PM’s spokesman explained: "She believes we should not commit to any process that would incentivise the EU to offer us a bad deal.
"If we are in a position where any deal negotiated by the Prime Minister could be rejected by MPs, that gives strength potentially to the other parties in this negotiation."
The spokesman stressed that the UK Government was approaching the Brexit talks in good faith and remained confident a deal that was good for Britain and the EU could be successfully brokered. But he added: “We should not commit to anything that will incentivise the EU to offer us a bad deal in the hope of stopping us leaving.”
Last week, peers overwhelmingly passed an amendment, which called for an immediate guarantee of rights for EU nationals already in the UK.
The bigger-than-expected Government defeat by 358 votes to 256 came as a result of Labour, Liberal Democrats and crossbenchers joining forces with a handful of rebel Tories.
Today, it is expected that Mrs May will potentially suffer an even larger defeat on the issue of a meaningful vote. MPs are due to debate the amendments next week.
While the PM, thanks to the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists, has a working majority of 32 on this issue, it would only take 17 rebel Tories for her government to be defeated.
Mrs May’s warning was echoed by her Conservative colleague, Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, who, in a speech in London, urged Remain-supporting peers not to use their role to scrutinise legislation as cover for opposing the clear verdict of the people in June’s referendum.
The PM’s message to the Lords came as sensitive official documents on the Brexit preparations were exposed to press photographers in Downing Street.
The memo from officials to David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, appeared to show he is planning to implement Brexit mainly through secondary legislation, with any "important changes" being put into an Act of Parliament. Secondary legislation would not involve Holyrood.
It suggested that he might use the Great Repeal Bill - which will transpose the whole of EU law onto the UK statute book - to take powers to do so.
However, Downing Street played down the significance of the document, saying it had not yet been seen by ministers and was "entirely consistent" with Mr Davis's recent White Paper setting out the Government's plans for Brexit.
Meantime, Labour has tabled an amendment that goes one step further in terms of a meaningful vote; it would mean that not only would MPs have to approve any deal but also they would have to give their permission for Britain to leave the EU without a deal.
In other developments:
*Francois Hollande, the outgoing French President, warned Britain would not be able to hang on to the benefits of EU membership once it had left, noting how the UK had made a "bad choice at a bad time" in voting for Brexit;
*the Brexit department has already spent an estimated £80,000 on foreign consultancies ahead of the formal triggering of Article 50.
*the Home Office revealed more than 130,000 EU nationals and their family members applied for UK permanent residency in the six months after the Brexit vote and
*Home Secretary Amber Rudd signalled Britain could remain part of the European Arrest Warrant after Brexit amid warnings that the country could become a "honeypot" for criminals.
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