Packed House of Lords as peers begin to vote today on key amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill... Lord Kerr/ Patten amendment on “a customs union” up first...
NEW - understand that ex-Tory Minister David Willetts will be voting against Government for CU amendment
NEW - understand that ex-Tory Minister David Willetts will be voting against Government for CU amendment
Ex Tory Cabinet minister Chris Patten, sponsor of Customs Union amendment quotes from Tory manifesto: “People are rightly sceptical of people who have easy answers to deeply complex problems”
“Expertise is a dangerous thing in the currently climate,” he says
“Expertise is a dangerous thing in the currently climate,” he says
Patten, ex trade negotiator, refers to the Korea deal praised by Foreign Sec “in 1400 page EU-Korea deal, 900 pages list tariffs, and the entire you can snowpeck [tipp ex] the word EU and replace with UK, in nano-seconds or years is absurd”
Second time Willetts has voted against the Government [overseas students last year too]
Chris PAtten: “I don’t think that blithering on about Global Britain or pretending we havent been Global Britain for years, or repeating the Road to Mandalay whenever one is travelling, is going to make a difference to our trading opportunities, we wont do better than CU”
Lord Lamont says Rules of Origin are an issue outside of Customs Union, but they “do not seem to have bothered Switzerland much, nor Norway or Iceland”... [though eg no car industries there] leaving CU has 3 benefits: appropriate tariffs, trade agreements, autonomy over rules
Commotion in Lords and cries of “Middle stump!” As Lord Hannay intervenes on Viscount Ridley saying dont listen to luvvies in Camden... and peers who “want to discriminate against Africa”, Hannay pointing out zero tariffs on African countries [under Everything But Arms]
“What we are witnessing here is an attempt to create division and confusion in the House of Commons with a view to preventing Brexit going ahead, that is what is going on and it is carefully orchestrated”: Lord Forsyth
“These amendments are part of a campaign that puts the peers against the people... refusing to accept the verdict of the people and they are playing with fire” says Lord Forsyth
Labour’s Baroness Hayter making argument “there is no majority for the Government’s red lines” the election “rejected that part of the Government’s manifesto” - important constitutional argument about the role of the Lords here & Salisbury Convention not applying
Labour’s Baroness Hayter criticises PM’s “weasel words” saying a deal would be “as tariff free as possible”
Keir Starmer watching on in Lords as peers are set to defeat Government returning an amended EU Withdrawal Bill closer to Opposition than Government policy
