Lords votes to let parliament block 'no-deal' Brexit
April 30, 2018
The UK House of Lords has voted for an amendment allowing parliament to send ministers back to the Brexit negotiation table. The change, a government defeat, would provide an alternative to crashing out of the EU.
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Britain's upper legislative chamber, the House of Lords, on Monday handed the government another defeat by voting to let parliament block a "no-deal" Brexit, if the proposed terms of the country's exit from the EU are not acceptable to lawmakers.
The Lords voted for an amendment giving parliament the right to decide on a next course of action, should members vote down the deal negotiated by the government.
The Lords voted by 335 to 244 for parliament to have the final say on the outcome, including the possibility of staying in the bloc if lawmakers are unhappy with the final agreement.
The motion was an amendment to a bill passed by the elected House of Commons, and the bill will now return to the lower house.
Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government has said it will fight the motion when it returns to the Commons.
Should parliament reject the terms of the deal without the amendment, lawmakers would be under pressure to accept them anyway, or risk legal uncertainty and significant damage to Britain's economy by crashing out of EU institutions.
Although May's Conservatives have a working majority with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, it is a very narrow one.
Deal or no deal? Brexit options boiled down
There's a spectrum of options on Britain's future relationship with the EU, each with a distinct set of advantages and disadvantages. While euroskeptic purists favor a clean "hard Brexit," others favor a softer landing.
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Hard or soft options
It's essentially a choice of a harder or softer Brexit. Harder prioritizes border control over trade. UK firms would pay tariffs to do business in the EU, and vice versa. The softest Brexit would see access to the single market, or at least a customs union, maintained. That would require concessions — including the payment of a hefty "divorce bill" — to which the UK has provisionally agreed.
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A leap into the unknown
Businesses have expressed concern about a "cliff edge" scenario, where Britain leaves the EU with no deal. Even if an agreement is reached at the EU bloc level, the worry is that it could be rejected at the last minute. Each of the 27 remaining countries must ratify the arrangements, and any might reject them. That could mean chaos for businesses and individuals.
If there is no agreement at all, a fully sovereign UK would be free to strike new trade deals and need not make concessions on the rights of EU citizens living in the UK or pay the financial settlement of outstanding liabilities. However, trade would be crippled. UK citizens in other parts of the EU would be at the mercy of host governments. There would also be a hard EU-UK border in Ireland.
Image: Imago
Divorce-only deal
The EU and the UK could reach a deal on Britain's exiting the bloc without an agreement on future relations. This scenario would still be a very hard Brexit, but would at least demonstrate a degree of mutual understanding. Trade agreements would be conducted, on an interim basis, on World Trade Organization rules.
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Limited arrangement, like with Canada
Most trade tariffs on exported goods are lifted, except for "sensitive" food items like eggs and poultry. However, exporters would have to show their products are genuinely "made in Britain" so the UK does not become a "back door" for global goods to enter the EU. Services could be hit more. The City of London would lose access to the passporting system its lucrative financial business relies on.
Under the Swiss model, the UK would have single market access for goods and services while retaining most aspects of national sovereignty. Switzerland, unlike other members of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), did not join the European Economic Area (EEA) and was not automatically obliged to adopt freedom of movement. Under a bilateral deal, it agreed to do so but is still dragging its feet.
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The Norway way
As part of the European Economic Area, Norway has accepted freedom of movement – something that no Brexit-supporting UK government would be likely to do. Norway still has to obey many EU rules and is obliged to make a financial contribution to the bloc while having no voting rights. Some see this as the worst of both worlds.
Image: dapd
A Turkey-style customs union
Turkey is the only major country to have a customs union with the EU, as part of a bilateral agreement. Under such an arrangement, the UK would not be allowed to negotiate trade deals outside the EU, instead having the bloc negotiate on its behalf. Many Brexiteers would be unwilling to accept this. It would, however, help minimize disruption at ports and, crucially, at the Irish border.
Image: Reuters/N. Hall
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Constitutional crisis?
A spokesperson for the prime minister said the amendment would give parliament too much sway. "What this amendment would do is weaken the UK's hand in our Brexit negotiations by giving parliament unprecedented powers to instruct the government to do anything with regard to the negotiations, including trying to keep the UK in the EU indefinitely."
Former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard warned that, if the amendment gained assent, it "could and very probably would lead to not one but several constitutional crises."
Dianne Hayter, the opposition Labour Party's Brexit spokeswoman, disagreed. "This is not ... about creating a constitutional crisis, nor is it about asking the Commons [the lower house] to take on the negotiations ... it is to ask the Commons and parliament to decide whether the outcome of the negotiations is good enough."
Work in progress
The government has promised lawmakers they will be able to have a "meaningful vote" on the deal, ahead of Britain's planned departure from the EU at the end of March 2019.
An interim deal was struck in December on the three main areas regarded as a Brexit priority for the EU: citizens' rights, the Irish border and Britain's financial settlement.
Britain has negotiated a transition deal that would see little change for UK firms in their dealings with Europe until after December 2020. This would depend on the UK and EU reaching an agreement on the terms of future trading relations. It's thought this won't be settled until October.
The vote came on the day that the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned that the talks were "at risk" because of disagreements over the future of the Irish border.
The defeat is the seventh in recent weeks for the government in the Lords on legislation to allow Britain's exit from the EU.
