Theresa May faces first defeat in Parliament over Brexit

The Dollar Business Bureau

UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May faced the first parliamentary defeat over Brexit after the Upper House voted for an amendment thereby delaying the bill which empowers her to begin talks for her country’s exit from the European Union.

The House of Lords or the Upper House, voted on Wednesday 358 to 256 for the amendment, indicating strongly the British ministers to safeguard the rights of EU citizens who are based in the UK after Brexit.

But, the defeat of the government in the Upper House could be a symbolic one as Members of the Parliament can remove that amendment when it goes back to the Commons.

The Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) said, “We are disappointed the Lords have chosen to amend a bill that the Commons passed without amendment. The bill has a straightforward purpose - to enact the referendum result and allow the government to get on with the negotiations.”

Theresa May said that any assurance of the rights of nationals of the EU must be part of that agreement which also protects UK’s expats overseas.

The amendment supported by the House of Lords requires the UK government to bring out proposals within 90 days of the Article 50 of Lisbon Treaty to make sure that the EU nationals in the UK will have the same rights post-Brexit.

MPs have already supported the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill without any amendments and can take away the House of Lords amendment when they again vote on the same later this month.

The UK government is looking confident to defeat the amendments to the Bill in the House of Commons.

The Bill after amendments will be returned to the Commons on March 13-14, when the MPs will have a debate on keeping the changes.