Theresa May vows to still trigger Brexit bill ‘unamended’ in two weeks despite defeat by unelected Lords over EU citizens’ right to stay in UK last night
Ministers signal they will seek to overturn change to Article 50 bill after peers inflict first parliamentary defeat on the PM
A DEFIANT Theresa May has vowed to push ahead with Brexit despite the House of Lords inflicting a stinging first defeat over the rights of EU nationals living in the UK.
Ministers have signalled they will seek to overturn a change to the Article 50 bill after last night's vote, and the Prime Minister plans to still kickstart Brussels divorce talks in two weeks.
It comes after the upper chamber defied her last night, voting by 358 to 256 in favour of an opposition amendment guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens after Brexit.
But a spokesman for No10 said this morning: "The Prime Minister has made clear her intention that the Bill should be passed unamended."
The defeat - which was by a larger margin than expected - came after an alliance of Labour, Lib Dem and even some Tory peers ignored pleas by the watching Home Secretary Amber Rudd not to alter the legislation.
What the change means is that Mrs May would be forced to make a commitment not to kick out the three million EU nationals currently in the UK once we quit the trading bloc, regardless of any deal we get, a result the Government described as "disappointing".
Former cabinet minister Douglas Hogg, now Viscount Hailsham, had urged his fellow peers to take the "high moral ground" and offer reassurance to the millions of EU citizens who had made their home in the UK.
But former Leader of the Lords Lord Strathclyde had warned voting for the amendment would "put at risk the future of a million British citizens living in the EU" by weakening Mrs May's negotiating hand.
And in angry exchanges not usually seen in the Lords, another Conservative cabinet veteran Lord Tebbit sparked jeers when he said the debate seemed to focus on "nothing but the rights of foreigners".
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To boos he said during yesterday’s debate: “It seems to me that the first duty of this Parliament of the United Kingdom is to care for the interests of the citizens of this kingdom.
“If we are to be concerned about anybody's rights after Brexit, to live anywhere on this continent of Europe, it should be our concern for the rights of British people to live freely and peacefully in those other parts.
“Somehow or other today we seem to be thinking of nothing but the rights of foreigners.”
He added: “Why is everybody here today so excited about an amendment that looks after the foreigners and not the British?”
Mrs May has previously said she hoped to sort out a deal securing the rights of those who have settled on our shores from the continent as soon as possible.
But she has stopped short of pledging that they will be able to stay until the rights of UK citizens living in the EU is agreed to as well.
And while she has been praised by some for not showing her hand, it has led to opposition parties accusing her of using EU nationals as "bargaining chips" in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.
This was a claim repeated by Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, who added: "There is a growing consensus that this must be resolved before Article 50 is triggered, and the Prime Minister is now increasingly isolated."
However there was anger among some pro-Brexit MPs at the vote by peers to amend the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill - after the elected House of Commons passed the Bill without any changes.
Labour's Gisela Stuart, who co-chaired the official Vote Leave campaign, said:"The British people voted in their millions to leave the EU, and their elected MPs passed the Article 50 Bill without amendment.
"The House of Lords should do the same and not seek to frustrate the Brexit process."
Conservative Theresa Villiers, the former Northern Ireland secretary who campaigned for Brexit, said there was wide sympathy for the position of EU nationals but the Bill was "not the right vehicle" to resolve it.
A spokesman for the Brexit Department said: "The Bill has a straightforward purpose - to enact the referendum result and allow the Government to get on with the negotiations."
“Our position on EU nationals has repeatedly been made clear. We want to guarantee the rights of EU citizens who are already living in Britain, and the rights of British nationals living in other member states, as early as we can.”
The House of Lords will today complete the second day of the 'committee stage' of the legislation, before giving it its 'third reading' next Tuesday and sending it back to the Commons.
Minister will then have to consider this amendment, and any others which might now get passed by an emboldened upper chamber, and give votes to MPs on whether to keep them or reverse the changes.
If, as expected, the Government again uses its majority to win those votes, it could trigger something known in Parliament as 'ping pong' - where disputed legislation is passed between the Houses.
However as the unelected peers in the Lords are expected to always give way to the elected MPs in the Commons, the PM can be quietly confident she will meet her self-imposed target of triggering Article 50, on her terms, by the end of March.