Thumbs down for Theresa May: UK’s upper house votes against May’s proposal on EU

NewsBharati    24-Apr-2018
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London, April 24: The U.K.’s upper house (House of Lords) voted against Prime Minister Theresa May on a key piece of Brexit legislation for the third time in a week, further complicating her plans for Britain’s departure from the European Union.

The House of Lords voted 245 out of 316 on Monday in favor of an amendment to the government’s so-called European Union (Withdrawal) Bill that would ensure the bulk of EU rules on political, social and economic rights are written into British law after Brexit.

“This bill should not be used to reduce the legal rights we all enjoy against the state,” said David Pannick, a barrister who sits as a non-aligned lawmaker in the House of Lords. The government’s proposed legislation is “simply a recipe for confusion,” and the “exclusion of the Charter of Fundamental Rights from this bill is unprincipled and unjustified,” he said.

The defeat was followed by others for May as a consequence of the first vote as lawmakers refined the wording of the bill. They voted to limit the powers of ministers to challenge EU law and again to retain the right to legal action over any failure to comply with the general principles of EU law.

Britain is set to leave the bloc on March 29, 2019, but the negotiations must be wrapped up in less than a year to leave parliaments time to ratify the agreement.