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Brexit Bill: Lord Lamont warns peers 'either you believe in democracy or you do not' during Article 50 debate

Peers have been warned that it would be "undemocratic" to frustrate the passage of the Government's Brexit Bill and undermine Theresa May's negotiating position.

Lord Lamont, the Tory former chancellor, told colleagues in the House of Lords "you either you believe in democracy or you do not". 

Speaking on the second day of the marathon debate on the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill, the Tory peer warned colleagues against any attempts to impose conditions on the Government ahead of divorce talks with Brussels.

The legislation, which would allow the Prime Minister to trigger the formal two-year Brexit process, has already cleared the Commons unamended with big majorities.

But the Government does not have an in-built majority in the Lords and opposition peers are determined to try and amend the legislation during its later stages.

Labour has vowed not to block the Bill, but it is looking to force concessions on issues like giving Parliament a "meaningful" vote before the end of the Brexit negotiations and guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens already legally settled in the UK.

The Bill is expected to complete its passage through the Lords by Tuesday March 7 but if peers have made amendments, it will return to the Commons, where MPs will debate whether to keep the changes or get rid of them.

Quoting Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, Lord Lamont said: "When the British people have spoken you do what they command. Either you believe in democracy or you do not.

"I believe in democracy and I believe that we should proceed rapidly with this Bill without amendments." 

Jeremy Corbyn came under fire this morning after a Labour lashed out at the party leader for failing to lead the fight against Brexit - blaming the party's "debilitation" for Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

Lord Liddle, a former special adviser on European matters to Tony Blair, said Mr Corbyn has failed to fight plans for a hard Brexit and instead marched his MPs through the division lobbies to vote for it.

2:23PM

Britain will have to pay ' hefty price' to leave EU

The future relationship between Britain and the European Union will take years to negotiate and the UK can expect a hefty bill as the price of exit, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has warned.

Mr Juncker said Britain must understand that it will not be able to negotiate a "cut-price or zero-cost" exit from the EU, but will have to settle the bill for commitments which it entered into as a member.

Discussions are underway in Brussels on the size of the bill to be presented to Prime Minister Theresa May when she launches withdrawal talks, with unconfirmed reports suggesting the demand may be as high as 60 billion euros (£51bn) over the next six years.

The sum will cover the UK's share of the cost of projects and programmes which it signed up to as part of the 28-nation bloc, as well as pensions for EU officials who served during its 45-year membership

Mr Juncker used a French slang term to tell the Belgian Federal Parliament in Brussels that he expected the bill to be very "salty" - meaning hefty or pricey.

He said: 

Our British friends need to know - and they know it already - that it will not be cut-price or zero-cost," said the Commission president.

The British will have to respect the commitments which they played a part in agreeing.

Therefore the bill will be - to use a rather vulgar term - very salty. It will be necessary for the British to respect commitments which they freely entered into.

Report from PA 

2:11PM

Brexit decisions 'tantamount to shooting oneself'

Lord Morris of Handsworth, a former union leader and Labour  peer, tells peers that some decisions taken on Brexit were "tantamount to shooting oneself".

Pointing to the need for migrant workers in agriculture, health and social care, Lord Morris asked the Lords: "Who are the workers the Government thinks we can do without?"

2:01PM

Tory peer warns against early concession on EU citizens 

Lord de Mauley, a Tory former minister,  backed the Government in seeking a reciprocal agreement over EU nationals in the UK and Britons living in other member states.

He said: "It is in the nature of negotiations that related and reciprocal matters are dealt with together.

"If one point is conceded this risks losing the reciprocal point.

"So by definition to do this would run the risk of British citizens currently living in another EU country losing the right to continue to reside in that country.

"That, it seems to me, would be grossly unfair on them. That is why I would resist any attempt to insist on the unilateral approach."

He also warned the provision of additional information on the UK's negotiating stance and Brexit impact assessments, which are being demanded by some peers, would be used against Britain in the upcoming talks.

1:57PM

'Current focus misplaced'

Lord O'Neill, a former trade Minister,tells peers that he believes the Government needs an arrangement as close to the single market as possible after Brexit. 

He calls for "sharper thinking" about trade after Brexit and suggests that the current focus has been "misplaced"

Lord O'Neill said the Government should be doing more to boost Britain's "so-called golden relationship with China - not doubting it".

Theresa May suffered her first ministerial resignation after the peer quit amid speculation he was unhappy at the new Prime Minister's policies on China, the 'Northern Powerhouse' project and grammar schools. 

Speaking this afternoon he aid the decision to hold a referendum was "driven by politics" and "not a great deal of thought was given to the economics of the issue".

The UK could prosper outside the EU but would "need to go about life somewhat perhaps dramatically different" to before, he said. 

And he also warned about "losing key talent" in any move to curb migration after Brexit.

1:33PM

PM to meet French Presidential favourite 

Theresa May is meeting the front-runner to be the next French president for talks at 10 Downing Street.

The meeting, on Tuesday afternoon, comes as Emmanuel Macron visits London to rally support among ex-pats in the city, whose 300,000-400,000 French residents effectively make it France's sixth-largest centre of population.

French citizens overseas are entitled to vote in this spring's election to find a replacement for Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace.

Downing Street said the Number 10 meeting had been requested by Mr Macron, who was expected to discuss "a broad range" of issues with the Prime Minister.

A former socialist, who last year established the En Marche movement to fight the presidential election, Mr Macron has come from behind to lead the polls for final victory in the two-round contest, which takes place in April and May.

A Downing Street spokesman said no other candidates had yet requested a meeting with Mrs May, but added there was a long-standing Government policy not to engage with the National Front party, whose leader Marine Le Pen is widely expected to reach the second-round run-off with Mr Macron.

Former PM Tony Blair met the centre-right's Nicolas Sarkozy at Number 10 when he was running for president in 2007, said the spokesman.

Mr Macron was later due to address 3,000 French voters in Westminster's Central Hall.

Report from PA 

1:28PM

Remain backing peer calls for unamended Bill 

Lord Gilbert, the Tory peer who worked with Britain Stronger in Europe during the referendum, admits the campaign "was not a thing of beauty". 

However, he calls on for unity and for the House of Lords to support the bill without amendments.

1:26PM

'Peer watch' 

1:18PM

'We must have faith in the people' 

Lord Lisvane, the Former House of Commons clerk, says the media are predicting that peers will be "difficult" and "backward looking". 

He says this is a "wonderful opportunity to prove them wrong", as he calls on peers to be positive, constructive and optimistic 

The peer says it is a "real leap of faith, it is asking a lot, but such a lot is at stake."

He says: "We must have faith, faith in the people, faith in their decision and faith in their willingness to make it work. 

"If they are willing to make that effort, should we not be willing to make it to?" he asks.

1:09PM

Baroness Wheatcroft 'silly' for opposing Brexit

Former Chancellor Lord Lawson described fellow Conservative peer Baroness Wheatcroft ‘silly’ for having previously written in the Guardian last August, that the House of Lords would be doing its job if it ‘applied the brakes to Brexit’.

He told Jo Coburn on today’s Daily Politics that the ‘people had spoken’ and that for ‘for one eccentric peeress to complain about it is neither here nor there.’

1:07PM

Brexit 'mess' is Cameron's  responsibility

Labour peer Lord McKenzie of Luton said responsibility for the "mess" of Brexit lay with David Cameron.

Lord McKenzie said: "He gambled that a referendum would heal the split in his party but has ended up splitting the country.

"History will rightly judge him harshly."

He also accused the Government of prevarication on the issue of EU nationals, which he branded as "cruel" given the "substantial" contribution these communities make to the UK.

While accepting the decision on Brexit, Lord McKenzie said: "But we should push our authority to the limit in challenging the Government on its proposed deal."

12:38PM

'I found myself in very unsavoury company' 

Baroness Jones,  a Green party peer, says she "found myself in very unsavoury company" during the EU referendum campaign.

She campaigned for Brexit, but says "the PM is approaching the negotiation with a blank sheet of paper."

The peer also says that if the Lords is abolished over Brexit it would be "a welcome bonus".

12:30PM

Labour peer hits out at Corbyn 

Lord Liddle hits out at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership during the referendum campaign. 

He says:

Let's be frank, and I do say this with terrible sadness, the debilitation of our own party contributed to Brexit. 

We have a leader, who unlike the vast majority of Labour members, including many of those who joined up in order to support him, has never been a European true believer. 

In the referendum he failed the key test of democratic politics, which is to cut through media cynicism and the mass of seething public discontent, with a compelling positive case for Europe- that forced voters to listen. 

He says that since the referendum, all he's seen Corbyn do is oversee a "three line whip in the commons to force Labour MPs to troop through the lobbies alongside a right wing Tory Government ." 

12:17PM

'I hang my head in shame' 

Lord Liddle, the Labour peer who worked as an adviser to Tony Blair, says : "I hang my head in shame that thge leaders of this country and my party couldn't get a majority for Remain last June and it will live with me to my dying day.

"There are many guilty men, and a few women too", he says. 

The peer says "it's time for Labour to tell the truth". He says the biggest losers from Brexit will be the poor. 

12:10PM

'I fear the personal attacks'

Baroness Altmann, a Tory peer, says she fears "politics is being put above economics". 

But reveals:

"For the first time in my life, I have been afraid of publicly  saying what I believe is right.

"I fear the personal attacks,  social media threats and hateful letters."

She tells eurosceptics that they do not have a "monopoly" on patriotism.

The peer warns  that Brexit bill "could do unquantified damaged to the country".

On the referendum result, she says "MPs have interpreted this as a mandate to rush head long into lighting the fuse of two-year time bomb." 

12:06PM

Peer calls for seperate talks on continuing security cooperation

Lord Blair, who is a former Met Commissioner, calls for immediate talks about continuing security cooperation. 

He calls for these talks to happen "at speed" and "separately from everything else." 

The peer adds that "the terrorists, the pedophiles  and the drug barons will breath a sigh of relief" if we opt out of all the current security arrangements.  

"All of the peoples of Europe will be at risk", he says. 

11:53AM

Lib Dem peer abandons official line 

Baroness Falkner of Margravine, a Lib Dem peer, is rebelling against the Lib Dem position of calling for a second referendum.

She says that a second referendum would harm the Government's negotiations, stressing "a second referendum entails risks for which the price is too high."

She reveals that she has German husband and a house in Italy, but that she will still be voting with the Government on Article 50.

She tells the Lords:

 "I have big dog in this fight, not a little whippet."

Baroness Northover, another Liberal Democrat peer said:

"This short Bill presages a long and complicated process. Parliament must be fully engaged, including meaningful votes at the end.

"And if at that end we judge that what has been negotiated turns out not to be those sunlit uplands and is not in the interests of our now divided country we must not be afraid to say so."

11:50AM

'This House should be saying 'not in our name'

Baroness Kennedy, a Labour peer, asks if the Lords are "meant to abandon our expertise?" 

She says she wants to talk about "this business  of 'the people have spoken'."

"I am tired of hearing this distortion", she says. "Its a degrading of our public discourse, its a poisoning of honest debate. "

The peer says that 48 per cent of the public voted against leaving and that it would be incredibly divisive to ignore their concerns. 

She says she rejects the triggering of Article 50 in the way the government has laid it out. 

She ends: 

"This House should be saying 'not in our name'".

11:35AM

'PM's speech was a UKIP speech' 

Lord Willoughby de Broke, a Ukip peer,  tells the Lords that Theresa May's speech at Lancaster House was "a UKIP speech" . 

He says that David Cameron took a gamble that a referendum would heal split in teh Tory party,  but he has ended up splitting the country. 

11:32AM

Lib Dems call for second referendum 

Baroness Kramer, a Lib Dem peer, says she wants to give people a second vote on the "the final transaction"

She tells peers that leaving the future of EU nationals as an uncertainty during the negotiations is "not compatible with British values". 

She adds that the referendum result did not give Theresa May to go ahead and secure an "extreme Brexit". 

11:20AM

Lord Lamont: 'We should proceed rapidly with this Bill'

The former Tory Chancellor says that those who voted Remain have a "duty not to undermine the Government's negotiating position." 

He says he admired the speech given by the shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, who was clear that Labour would not seek to block Brexit. 

But the Tory peer says Labour after the referendum was "like looking in a mirror at the Conservative Party of the 1990s". 

On Tony Blair, he says that the former Labour Prime Minister has an" extraordinary ability to say two completely contradictory things simultaneously. 

"He said he was not disputing the result, at the same time he called on people to rise up. 

"He said that people might change their minds, what he meant was that he might be able to change their minds." 

"The former Prime Minister said people weren't given the full facts, well of course in a negotiation no one has full knowledge of where we are going to end up. 

"The former Prime Minister said Brexit was driven by ideology, if anything the opposite appears the case, European Unification as a movement has been almost a religion."

He says that "people have had over 40 years to make up their minds".

He quotes Paddy Ashdow, who said before the referendum result that "when the British people have spoken you do what they command. Either you believe in democracy or you do not.”

He ends: "I believe in democracy and I believe that we should proceed rapidly with this Bill- without amendments." 

10:30AM

Europe wants Britain to pay billions up until 2023

The European Commission wants Britain to be paying into EU projects for four years after it has signed a Brexit deal, with final payments continuing up until the end of 2023, the Daily Telegraph has learned.  

The plan is part of a European Union demand that Britain settles a €60bn “Brexit bill” before being granted a deal that will govern future trade relations.

The suggestion that Britain should pay in installments up until 2023 was made at a meeting earlier this month between Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, and senior officials from the 27 remaining EU member states.

The aim of the payments would be to help smooth over the €10bn-a-year black hole left in the EU budgets by Britain’s departure from the EU, which could see richer countries like Germany and France paying more, or poorer countries, like Poland and Hungary receiving less.

10:05AM

'Britain will be plunged into its biggest turmoil'

Lord Hague, the former Conservative leader, warned last night that Britain will be plunged into its biggest turmoil in over a century if peers attempt to thwart Brexit

He said it would be a “great mistake” for people to heed the call from former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair for people to rise up against Brexit last week.

He said: “The referendum was decisive and attempts to refight the referendum which begun in the last few days are a great error.”

He said that if he had asked people to rise up against Mr Blair’s landslide victory in 2001 “he would have told me to listen to the voters and abide by the result”.

Adding:

If there was a real chance of success, or rising up success against leaving the European Union, it would open up the most protracted, bitter, potentially endless conflict in British society we have seen since the decades of debate on Irish Home Rule, and possibly even longer than that. It is not in the interests of our democracy and the governance of the country to do so.

"We cannot be leaving the EU in 2017, and remaining in it in 2018, and leaving it again in 2019 and by 2020 to be too confused about what we are doing.

9:59AM

Peers debate Article 50 Bill 

Good Morning, 

The House of Lords will conclude the first stage of a crucial Brexit debate tonight after Theresa May ramped up pressure on them not to block or delay Britain's exit from the European Union.

In a highly unusual move on Monday, the Prime Minister sat on the steps in front of the Royal Throne in the Upper Chamber as Lords Leader Baroness Evans of Bowes urged peers not to frustrate the passage of the Brexit Bill.

As many as 110 peers are due to debate the Bill today in a sitting running late into the evening.

Peers are likely to vote on the contentious amendments such as giving EU nationals a legal right to remain in the UK after Brexit next week.

The Bill is expected to complete its passage through the Lords by Tuesday March 7 but if peers have made amendments, it will return to the Commons, where MPs will debate whether to keep the changes or get rid of them.

This procedure, known as "ping-pong", would see the Bill repeatedly move between the Commons and the Lords until an agreement is reached on the final text.

Labour's leader in the Lords Baroness Smith said her party will seek to amend the legislation but said there would be no extended wrangling between the Chambers..

This virtually guarantees UK triggering Article 50 by the end of March because dates for this Parliamentary "ping pong" have been set for March 13 and March 14.

Road to Brexit | Article 50 and the House of Lords