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| Lords defeat government over rights of EU citizens in UK | Lords defeat government over rights of EU citizens in UK |
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| Theresa May has suffered a heavy defeat in the House of Lords after peers voted by 358 votes to 256 in favour of an amendment calling on the government to secure the rights of EU citizens in the UK. | Theresa May has suffered a heavy defeat in the House of Lords after peers voted by 358 votes to 256 in favour of an amendment calling on the government to secure the rights of EU citizens in the UK. |
| A number of Conservatives including the former cabinet minister Douglas Hogg lined up with Labour, Liberal Democrats and crossbench peers to demand formal reassurance to more than 3 million Europeans already resident in Britain. | |
| The Lords did not go as far as calling for immediate, unilateral action but said ministers should be made to set out proposals about how they would protect citizens and their families within three months of article 50 being triggered. | The Lords did not go as far as calling for immediate, unilateral action but said ministers should be made to set out proposals about how they would protect citizens and their families within three months of article 50 being triggered. |
| The decision forces the government’s Brexit bill into a process of ping-pong between the Houses of Commons and Lords, delaying its passage into law by at least one week until 14 March. | The decision forces the government’s Brexit bill into a process of ping-pong between the Houses of Commons and Lords, delaying its passage into law by at least one week until 14 March. |
| Conservative MPs will now face intense lobbying over the issue as campaigners try to persuade them to inflict an unlikely further defeat in the House of Commons. | Conservative MPs will now face intense lobbying over the issue as campaigners try to persuade them to inflict an unlikely further defeat in the House of Commons. |
| Labour’s Brexit spokeswoman in the Lords, Lady Hayter, opened up the debate, claiming the government had the power to act now over the issue, saying: “In 1985, my noble friend Lord Kinnock had to say to his own party: ‘You can’t play politics with people’s jobs.’ | Labour’s Brexit spokeswoman in the Lords, Lady Hayter, opened up the debate, claiming the government had the power to act now over the issue, saying: “In 1985, my noble friend Lord Kinnock had to say to his own party: ‘You can’t play politics with people’s jobs.’ |
| “I now want to say to the government: you can’t do negotiations with people’s futures.” | “I now want to say to the government: you can’t do negotiations with people’s futures.” |
| She was backed by a number of high-profile peers including the previous Lib Dem leader, Lord Campbell, the former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake and the former lord chief justice, Lord Woolf. | She was backed by a number of high-profile peers including the previous Lib Dem leader, Lord Campbell, the former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake and the former lord chief justice, Lord Woolf. |
| Lord Hailsham (Douglas Hogg) was the most high profile Conservative to back the amendment, laid down by the Labour frontbench but formally backed by Tories, Lib Dems and cross-benchers. | |
| He said denying European citizens the right to remain in Britain could face legal challenge, but also said it was a matter of principle. | |
| “On Monday I was lunching in the dining room in the House of Commons, where I was meeting staff whom I have known for very many years. And one of the waitresses came up to me and she said: ‘What is going to happen to me when Brexit takes place?’ She was born in France but has worked in the United Kingdom, has been in the House of Commons, for very many years. | |
| “I gave her my personal opinion, which was that there would be no problem for her, but I was not able to give her the guarantee that I think she was entitled to deserve.” | |
| But while there was some unexpected backing for the amendment, there was also some unlikely backing for the government on the issue. | |
| The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, said that he was one of the people who had left Uganda under Amin because of his opposition to policy, “so I know how minorities can feel”. | |
| But he insisted this was a “simple bill” only about triggering article 50 and that it was unnecessary to amend it in this way. | |
| He said the legislation was “a race about to start – on your marks, get set, bang”. | |
| “Then they take off and it will take two years to run this race and during the running of the race we want to make sure concerns come back,” he said. | |
| Other supporters of the government included the former Tory leader Lord Howard, who argued that the best option to end the uncertainty was to “pass this bill as quickly as possible and to activate article 50 as quickly as possible”. | |
| Lord Strathclyde added that the amendment could put at risk the needs of British people living abroad. | |
| But the prime minister, who does not have a majority in the Lords, was easily beaten despite a last-minute effort by Amber Rudd to reassure peers about the government’s intentions on the issue. | |
| She had insisted there was no question of treating European citizens with “anything other than the utmost respect”, and said their status would be top priority in EU negotiations. | |
| In the Lords, many disagreed on the issue. Kerslake said the government’s argument that an offer to EU citizens would weaken its hand in European negotiations was questionable. “However you think about that argument it is using them as bargaining chips.” | |
| The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, will argue that May is becoming increasingly isolated on the issue, as he prepares to back the amendment in the Commons. | |
| But Tory backbenchers who supported remain told the Guardian that they did not believe May would be defeated. The prime minister knows that public opinion is mixed on the issue. | |
| A recent Guardian/ICM poll found that 41% believed the government should guarantee the rights of EU nationals now because it is the right thing to do, but 42% supported the government position to wait for protections for British people lving abroad. | |
| The move in the Lords was unusual as peers rarely force a vote when bills are in their committee stage. However, Rudd’s letter made clear that the government was not ready to concede on the issue. | |
| Monique Hawkins, a Dutch woman who highlighted the plight of EU citizens when she revealed last December she had been asked to “prepare to leave” the country after 24 years said she was “heartened” to hear so many moving and inspiring speeches. | |
| However, she added that she feared the successful amendment still did not cover stay-at-home parents, carers, disabled people and students whose residence status was uncertain because they decided to continue their lives in Britain but did not take out health insurance when they arrived in the country. | |
| A coalition of 13 groups representing British nationals abroad and EU citizens in the UK said it was “delighted” describing the vote as a “positive step in the right direction”. But they added they were concerned “the amendment makes no mention of UK citizens in the EEA ”despite the efforts of the grass roots groups representing Britons across Europe to get their message across. |