May faces first Brexit bill defeat

The Lords voted on Wednesday 358 to 256 for an amendment requiring ministers to protect the rights of EU nationals based in the UK following Brexit. In the House of Lords, May’s Conservative Party does not command a majority. 

Amendment backed by the Lords requires the government to introduce proposals within three months of Article 50 to ensure EU citizens in the UK have the same residence rights after Brexit. However, the government’s defeat in the Lords could prove a symbolic one as MPs can remove the amendment when it comes back to the House of Commons. The vote came after a heated debate in the Lords where the government was accused of treating EU citizens like “bargaining chips”. 

The Department for Exiting the EU said, “We are disappointed the Lords have chosen to amend a Bill that the Commons passed without amendment. The Bill has a straightforward purpose to enact the referendum result and allow the government to get on with the negotiations.” 

May has said that any guarantee of the rights of EU nationals must be part of a deal protecting UK expats overseas. May has set an end of the month deadline to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which will trigger the two-year deadline for Brexit negotiations. MPs have already backed the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill without amendments and can remove the Lords’ amendment when they vote on it again later this month. 

Government is said to be confident of defeating the changes to the bill in the Commons. Jeremy Corbyn, the Opposition Labour leader who ordered his MPs to support the bill unamended when it went through the Commons, described the result of the Lords vote as “great news”, raising the possibility that he might tell his MPs to back the amendment in the Lower House.