BREAKING: British government defeated in Lords on Brexit amendment
British prime minister Theresa May’s government was defeated in the House of Lords on Wednesday night over an amendment that would oblige Britain to seek to remain in a customs union with the European Union afterThe amendment to a trade Bill had the support of opposition parties and independent or cross-bench peers in the upper house, where the government does not have a majority. It passed by 207 votes to 141 - a majority of 66.
“Labour has consistently made the case for the UK to negotiate a new customs union with the EU – one that would protect jobs and secure opportunities for our industries, as well as remove the need for a hard border in Ireland. This approach commands wide support around the country and would give everyone some much-needed certainty about our future should we leave the EU,” he said.
“I’m only telling you what the EU have said and what the Irish Government have said: once you do that, you have removed the backstop. If they didn’t want to have the withdrawal agreement totally destroyed, you could remove the backstop by imposing a time limit on it. That in effect has the same outcome – there is no backstop,” he said.
“That certainly is not a mechanism which we would accept, and I think for two reasons. First of all, that leaves us in exactly the same position as the current withdrawal agreement does, where somebody else decides whether the United Kingdom can break out of the backstop or whether it stays in the backstop. Whether we decide to alter the backstop or alter any arrangements we have with the EU should be the decision of this parliament and this government, not some independent panel of judges.
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