London – Britain’s House of Lords gave parliament’s final approval late Monday to a bill empowering Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May to begin negotiations on leaving the European Union.
Parliament’s unelected upper house voted by large majorities not to insist on two amendments to the bill following its return to the Lords from the main house, the Commons.
Lawmakers in the Commons earlier rejected Lords amendments that had sought to protect the rights of EU citizens resident in Britain and guarantee parliament a final vote on the terms of Brexit.
May has promised to trigger two years of negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows a nation to leave the EU, by the end of March.
Ahead of the votes, speculation had mounted that May could trigger Article 50 as early as Tuesday if the bill was approved on Monday.
But The Guardian, without quoting any source, said May had already “quashed speculation” and was likely to wait until the last week of March.
Brexit Secretary David Davis, who tabled the bill for the government, welcomed parliament’s backing.
“We are now on the threshold of the most important negotiation for our country in a generation,” Davis said in a statement.
“We have a plan to build a Global Britain, and take advantage of its new place in the world by forging new trading links.”
Reacting to the rejection of the amendment to give parliament a vote in the final Brexit deal, pro-EU Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry, said it was “a disappointing result for anyone who recognizes the vital importance of parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit.”
In a statement via the Open Britain group, Soubry said she hoped lawmakers and the public would “continue to campaign against the kind of hard Brexit that will damage our economy.”
Speaking to the BBC earlier, Davis had urged lawmakers not to “tie the prime minister’s hands” by accepting either of the two amendments.
Lawmakers from Labour, the main opposition party, were divided on the bill, with leader Jeremy Corbyn persuading most of them to support it.
A small group of protesters gathered near parliament during Monday’s debate, urging the government to guarantee the residency rights of EU citizens already living in Britain.
Ahead of the debate, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon added to the pressure on May by announcing plans to seek the devolved parliament’s approval next week to hold a second referendum on Scotland’s independence from Britain.
Sturgeon said she felt obliged to start the referendum process after her efforts to seek a compromise with May on Brexit were met with “intransigence” and a “hard line response.”
Scottish feelings about the Brexit question are high, since a majority of voters in Scotland voted against leaving the EU.
But May’s government said a second Scottish independence referendum “would be divisive and cause huge economic uncertainty at the worst possible time.”
-dpa
