British Prime Minister Theresa May was yesterday facing a second defeat on her Brexit bill as the British House of Lords votes on another change that would give parliament the final say on leaving the EU.
The bill empowering May to start the Brexit process has already been held up by a week after peers voted on Wednesday last week for an amendment guaranteeing the rights of European citizens living in Britain.
Members of the unelected upper chamber were yesterday expected to back a second amendment, this time to give parliament a vote on the final withdrawal deal and any future trade ties with the EU.
May has promised lawmakers a vote on a “take it or leave it” basis, meaning that if they reject the deal on offer, Britain would leave the EU without any agreement at all.
However, opponents fear such an arrangement would cause economic and legal chaos, as all previous trade deals and contracts between Britain and its 27 former EU partners would become void overnight.
A poll released yesterday by the Independent newspaper found that only 25 percent of Britons would support leaving the EU without a deal, with 56 percent favoring other options at odds with the prime minister’s plans.
Among those, 27 percent said May should try to renegotiate a deal, 15 percent said Britain should stay in the EU on existing terms and 14 percent said Britain should stay in on new terms that the government should try to negotiate.
The poll, conducted by BMG Research, surveyed 1,576 people online.
May has repeatedly urged the House of Lords not to amend the two-clause EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill, saying it is designed only to implement last year’s June referendum vote to leave the bloc.
She is under pressure to pass the bill quickly to meet her deadline of triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon, which would start the two-year process of exiting the bloc, by the end of this month.
However, a House of Lords source from the opposition Labour Party said that it expected to win its amendment yesterday “handsomely” thanks to cross-party support.
The start of the Brexit talks will loom over this week’s EU summit in Brussels, which May is to join for the first half before leaving her fellow leaders to discuss their future without Britain.
May is optimistic she can get a deal, but has also warned she is willing to walk away from the negotiations, saying that “no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal.”
However, Labour Brexit spokeswoman in the House of Lords Dianne Hayter said: “We need the best possible deal to lessen the social and economic aftershocks of the referendum result.”
“Engaging parliament throughout the process can only but help improve the prime minister’s negotiating hand, and a vote at the end will, I am sure, be conducted in the best interests of our country,” she added.
Peers last week voted 358 to 256 to amend the bill to ensure ministers protect the rights of more than 3 million European citizens living in Britain after Brexit.
The change dashed May’s hopes of securing approval for the bill this week, as it must now return to lawmakers in the lower British House of Commons for deliberation, likely on Monday next week.
Ministers will seek to overturn the change and, with a majority for their Conservative party in the House of Commons, are confident that this can be achieved.
However, the second amendment on a final Brexit vote might be harder to remove, as reports have said that as many as 20 Conservative lawmakers might rebel against May to support it.
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