LONDON — There will be “overwhelming” public support for the House of Lords to be abolished if peers try to block Britain’s exit from the European Union, government sources have told the BBC.
MPs voted by 494 to 122 to pass the third and final reading of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill on Wednesday evening.
Theresa May now needs the Lords’ approval before she can trigger Article 50 — the formal mechanism of departing the EU.
Peers, who unlike MPs are unelected, will debate the bill and decide whether to push for amendments before it is submitted for Royal Assent in early March.
Government figures are already putting pressure on the Lords to resist the temptation to delay the passage of the bill by proposing amendments and let it sail through Parliament unchallenged
An unnamed member of Theresa May’s government told the BBC: “If the Lords don’t want to face an overwhelming public call to be abolished they must get on and protect democracy and pass this bill.”
Secretary of State for Exiting the EU (DExEU) David Davis has also pushed members of the upper house into the national spotlight, calling on the Lords to “do its job” and “do its patriotic duty and actually give us the right to go on and negotiate that new relationship.”
The bill passed through the House of Commons without a single amendment being added, despite the efforts of MPs from other parties and a handful of Tory MPs. Labour MP Clive Lewis resigned from the shadow cabinet over the Opposition’s failure to amend the bill.
The Lords typically do not seek to amend bills if they have been passed unamended by MPs. However, peers may feel they have more freedom to manipulate the terms of the bill as they face no electoral consequences for delaying Brexit — unlike Labour MPs in Leave-voting seats, for example. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has promised that Lib Dem peers will “seek to make changes” to the government’s Brexit plan. The threats against their future may also backfire.
The idea of wholesale House of Lords reform has spoken about for years but Parliament is yet to take any meaningful action. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg introduced the House of Lords Reform Bill in 2012 only for it to be thrown out by Conservative MPs in the Tory-led coalition government.
Now it seems the issue is being used as a weapon by pro-Brexit Conservative MPs who want Britain’s departure from the 28-nation to be swift and without further delay.
Another source within Downing Street distanced the prime minister’s office from this view on Thursday morning, telling the BBC that Number 10 recognises the important role peers must play in scrutinising and debating the bill.
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