May loses Lords vote on post-Brexit powers for ministers

Peers and MPs claimed a significant victory on Wednesday when an attempt to give sweeping powers to ministers was thrown out of the Brexit bill as complaints about the power of the Lords to reverse the decisions of the Commons grew louder.

In the first of a series of votes on how the powers brought back from Brussels would be limited by the balance between ministers and parliament, peers from all parties defeated the government by 349 to 221 – a majority of 128.

On Tuesday, the Tory backbencher and vociferous Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg accused peers of “playing with fire” over Brexit. A petition calling for a referendum on the abolition of the Lords has attracted more than 100,000 signatures and is eligible for a debate at Westminster.

Amnesty International said the Lords had “ripped up the blank chequebook that ministers sought to give themselves.

“The Lords have sent a clear message to the Commons: leaving the EU shouldn’t mean leaving rights behind.”

minininja wrote:but because it supposedly hinders May's catastrophic "war room" style of negotiations, apparently they have to go.

Scot Dutchy wrote:Mr Barnier says "No way".

EU rejects Irish border proposals and says Brexit talks could still fail

Michel Barnier says the UK wants to cherry pick its terms, and that the EU response is: ‘No way’

The EU’s chief negotiator has said there is still a “risk of failure” in the Brexit negotiations as Brussels again rejected the UK’s proposals to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

Michel Barnier said on Friday that a quarter of the work needed to complete preparations for the UK to leave the the bloc next March remains to be done, as sources say little progress was made in three weeks of talks to break the deadlock on the vexed Irish question.

“In terms of what has been agreed so far, it’s about 75%,” Barnier told France 2 television.

Even if Britain and the EU were working towards a British exit from the EU taking place in March 2019, this may not happen if outstanding topics such as Ireland were unresolved, he said.
....
Mujtaba Rahman, of the political consultancy Eurasia group, said: “This is the first time in an official meeting the UK’s Mansion House proposals have been systematically shot down by the EU side.”

HMG's proposed amendment to the Scotland Act today (it's the same for Wales and NI) could be called a rapist's theory of consent: (a) Yes is consent; (b) Silence is consent; (c) No is consent. Imaginative drafting, but what's the point of this rigmarole?https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2017-2019/0079/18079-R-III(a).pdf …

This is the key part of the Withdrawal Bill amendments. A refusal of @ScotParl consent will not prevent @GOVUK restricting our powers for up to 7 years. @scotgov will not sign up to that - but it can still be fixed so the ball is in Westminster’s court.

Genuinely mystified why the press didn't make more of this. It's a great "story" whatever side of the fence you sit. Scottish parliament has the right to withhold consent except on those occasions when it does. Hilarious.

ronmcd wrote:

Genuinely mystified why the press didn't make more of this. It's a great "story" whatever side of the fence you sit. Scottish parliament has the right to withhold consent except on those occasions when it does. Hilarious.

https://twitter.com/iainmacwhirter

"For the purposes of subsection (3) a consent decisions is -
ours to make, not yours. Back in yer fucking box, jocko

The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has recently produced estimates of the number of British citizens living in the European Union (EU). The numbers, apparently, have declined from 1.22 million prior to 2017 to “around 900,000” (January 2017) and more recently to 784,900 (April 2018).

Meanwhile, our research has revealed that most informed commentators (academics, local government officials, consular offices, and others who work with the British abroad) understand numbers to have changed little since 2008, and that the correct, conservative, estimate is closer to 1.8 million.

Meanwhile, our research has revealed that most informed commentators (academics, local government officials, consular offices, and others who work with the British abroad) understand numbers to have changed little since 2008, and that the correct, conservative, estimate is closer to 1.8 million.

The (somewhat odd) argument for excluding Ireland is that “citizenship is not a suitable definition and so the data would not be comparable”. The April 2018 report defines British abroad using citizenship rather than country of birth, because the latter can miss some groups of citizens, and because Irish and British citizenship “are complex”. Well, given that dual citizenship is available in most EU27 states, I would argue it is complex for everyone.

Brexiteers had suggested Ireland might follow Britain in leaving the EU

Support for Ireland remaining in the European Union has reached near-unanimous levels in the Republic, with a solution to the Brexit border problem looking further off than ever.

A full 92 per cent of the Irish population now support staying in the EU, according to a new survey by pollsters Red C, with just 7 per cent supporting a theoretical “Irexit” and 1 per cent saying they don’t know.

The findings are likely to disappoint British Brexiteers, some of whom have suggested Ireland might follow Britain’s march towards the exit door – and that Irish departure could be a way of solving the border question currently plaguing Brexit talks.

The fact is that neither of the alternatives discussed in the Brexit cabinet committee last week is practical

newolder wrote:I wonder how often she gets this picture out to share with her Cabinet colleagues?

House of Lords has voted in favour of continued membership of the Single Market by majority of 27. Hugely important victory for common sense on Brexit

Almost all Labour peers just backed continued membership of the European Single Market, despite leadership suggesting abstention. Lot of Tories too. The baton now passes to Labour & Conservative MPs to do their duty by the country

Jeremy Corbyn tries to get his Lords to abstain on staying in the single market, and fails. Theresa May fails to sack her Foreign Secretary after he called her plan for customs "crazy". Just another glorious day showcasing courageous political leadership in the UK.

ronmcd wrote:This country is fucked.

Yesterday's vote was shocking. Just before 8pm, the House of Lords defeated the government by 245 votes to 218 and demanded that Britain stays in the single market. Eighty-three Labour peers resisted Jeremy Corbyn's demand that they abstain - nearly half the party's backbenchers. They were joined by 17 Tory Lords, who'd been whipped to reject it. It now goes back to the Commons, alongside the other rebel amendments.

These are unpredictable times, so people are starting to get their hopes up about what might happen. No-one expected yesterday's vote to pass - not political journalists, not the Labour leadership and not even the people who organised it. But even with that degree of volatility and momentum, it's hard to imagine that a vote for single market membership could pass the Commons.

The reason why is simple: Jeremy Corbyn. Unlike the customs union, he will whip his MPs against it, or at least to abstain, which adds up to the same thing. To defeat the government you need all wings of the Labour party united, alongside the other opposition parties, and a few Tory rebels. That just about gives you the numbers to defeat the Conservatives, DUP and handful of dyed-in-wool Labour Brexiters.

[..]

But last night's vote does have one very useful attribute, even if it won't outright secure soft Brexit. It shines a very harsh and unforgiving light on what the Labour leader is doing. He is going against the wishes of Labour peers, Labour members, Labour voters, and the public. And he is doing that because of an ideological commitment to hard Brexit.

SNP MP Mhairi Black has said Jeremy Corbyn told her he backs Scotland becoming an independent country in a private conversation.

Speaking to the HuffPost UK the MP said the Labour leader had “sold out” over the issue, adding that she knew he “doesn’t believe the things he says about it”.

She added: “He has sold out in terms of austerity. He has sold out in terms of Scottish independence – because I know that he doesn’t believe the things he says about independence now.”

Asked directly how she knew Corbyn backed independence, the Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP said: “From talking to him”.