Lord Heseltine sacked as adviser to government ‘over Brexit rebellion’

The government argued that the prospect of a parliamentary veto on the final Brexit deal would undermine the prime minister in the negotiations with other European Union leaders.

The former deputy prime minister has said he is not interested in sparking a “constitutional crisis” if the Commons decides to reject the amendment submitted by the Lords.

The vote attaches an extra condition wwhich will give May the power to trigger “divorce talks”.

The Government suffered a heavy defeat with the opposition winning by a majority of 98 after 366 voted in favour of the change to the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) bill, with 268 against.

“The Lords have rightly stood up for parliamentary sovereignty and refused to write the government a blank check for hard Brexit”.

According to the Lords report, the United Kingdom contributed £19.1bn to the European Union budget in 2014, and received £10.8bn in return, through a rebate and public and private sector grants.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will support “more Europe” for all members instead of a two-speed model that would split the block, a senior Commission official has said, refuting previous allegations.

May has set the end of March as the deadline to start negotiations.

Committee chair Benn said: “We were told that at pre-referendum rates of processing, giving residence documents to all potentially eligible applicants using the current system would take the equivalent of 140 years”.

Earlier in the day, a Lib Dem-led amendment calling for a second vote on the final deal was defeated by 336 votes to 131, prompting Lib Dem peers to annouce they will oppose the Bill at third reading.

The Lords amendment demands that parliament, not the prime minister, makes the final call.

“It will guarantee that the Government must come back to both Houses and seek approval for the result of negotiations”.

Those powers should not, however, be used to pick and choose which elements of European Union law to keep or replace – that should be done only through primary legislation that is subject to proper Parliamentary scrutiny, he said.

However, the scale of the Lords rebellion, and attacks on her strategy by Conservative figures such as Lord Heseltine, is a significant dent to her authority.

Former Tory Scottish secretary, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, warned of a “hidden agenda” and accused the authors of the amendment of a “clever lawyer’s confection”.