‘I think it’s only right to delay Brexit’ claims ultra Remainer Tory peer Baroness Wheatcroft who says House of Lords will block triggering Article 50
She said she will use bombshell legal ruling to stop Theresa May starting the process of taking us out of the EU
A REMAIN-BACKING Tory peer has said “it’s only right” to delay Brexit as she claimed the House of Lords would block the triggering of Article 50.
Baroness Wheatcroft said she will use yesterday’s bombshell legal ruling to stop Theresa May from starting the process of taking us out of the EU.
It is a clear example of how the judges’ decision has thrown the Prime Minister’s timetable for exiting Brussels has been thrown into chaos.
Instead of suing her so-called ‘prerogative’ powers to make the decision to invoke Article 50 when she wanted to, unless the Government wins an appeal at the Supreme Court it will need an Act of Parliament.
This means MPs and peers will get to debate, alter and then vote on a piece of legislation, which could end up delaying Brexit significantly.
Mrs May had outlined her plan to start the formal process by the end of March 2017, but Baroness Wheatcroft said that looked like "an impossible target".
She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I think that it's only right to delay triggering Article 50 until we have a clearer idea of what it actually entails and I think there will be others in the Lords who feel the same way.
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"How many it's hard to say, but I think there could be a majority who'd be in favour of delaying Article 50 until we know a little more about what lies ahead."
The arch Remain supporter had said back in August she would support peers delaying a piece of Brexit legislation if it was required.
As the Government does not have a majority in the House of Lords anyway, getting a quick turnaround could prove to be a real headache for the PM.
Other peers have expressed similar concerns, with Labour’s Baroness Kennedy saying Mrs May would have to clear out all other bills and laws from the slate to get an Article 50 Bill through both Houses of Parliament by March.
She told World At One: "There would have to be a shifting off the legislative timetable of all the other stuff in order to have the timetable that the Prime Minister is imagining."
And former Conservative minister Baroness Altmann said: "Surely it's right that Parliament should scrutinise this.
“If it takes some time to iron out all the implications of what this means, I'm afraid it might take some time."
Meanwhile, the SNP’s Europe spokesman Stephen Gethins made it clear the party’s MPs were ready to vote against triggering Article 50.
Mr Gethins told the programme that the SNP wanted more information about Mrs May's negotiation stance, adding: "If there's nothing in there that respects Scotland's position, then of course we are going to vote against Article 50 being triggered."
He joins several other MPs who have already said they would seek to vote down a Brexit bill.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg told Radio 4’s Today programme: “We will seek, with other parties in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, to amend the legislation such that Parliament would say to the Government that it should pursue a soft Brexit and not a hard Brexit – and that there should be some means by which the British people can have a say on the final deal when the negotiations with the European Union are finally completed in the years ahead.”
Labour’s David Lammy, whose Tottenham seat is in Haringey – which voted 75% for remain, said: “I will be voting with my constituents.”
He told the BBC: “I will be voting in what I believe to be the interests of the country, which I think all MPs will take on board, and I will absolutely not be voting to trigger Article 50.”
His fellow labour MP’s Catherine West, Daniel Zeichner and Geraint Davies have expressed similar sentiments, while ex-Chancellor Ken Clarke said: “If I could stop Brexit I would - if we have a vote on Article 50 I will be one of the eccentrics who votes against it.”