Article 50 Bill – House of Lords second reading debate highlights

Article 50 Bill – House of Lords second reading debate highlights

Baroness Evans – Opening the debate “Conservative government was elected with a clear manifesto commitment… to ask the British people whether they wanted to stay in the EU”


Lord Mandelson – Calls for a second referendum, saying that voters “may want to think again”


Lord Hague – “I voted to remain in the European Union but I support this bill because I believe the referendum was decisive”


Lord Lawson – “Less than 10% of the vast corpus of EU regulation concerns workers rights, it is the other 90% which need to be culled”


Lord Lawson – “The UK already does far more trade with the rest of the world than the EU, the majority of which is on WTO terms”


Lord Howarth – “Those who meditate a second referendum are playing with fire”


Lord Forsyth – “More than a hundred [Lib Dems] have landed here like beached whales, noisily swimming against the democratic tide”


Lord Hain – “I will vote against this bill if the government does not accept key cross-party, cross-bench amendments”


Lord Mawson – “This public has watched children drowning in the Mediterranean…[The EU] has not filled people with confidence”


Lord Sterling – “We’re taking a view for the next 200 years, we’re not taking a view what’s happening next month or two months time”


Lord Flight – On the EU issue having been stifled for years – “give them the opportunity to be interested and you’ll be amazed”


Lord Callanan – “Now that they got the result they didn’t want, theyre telling us that actually it’s time to think again”


Lord Willoughby de Broke: says people in the future will be shocked that Britain “contracted out its laws to people we didn’t elect”


Baroness Jones “I believe passionately that we have made the right decision”


Lord Lamont: “My Lords – I believe in democracy – and I believe we should proceed rapidly with this bill, without amendment.”


Lord Trimble – The fact that the EU offered Cameron nothing “tells you an awful lot about their basic approach”


Lord Brook – says he will be supportive of the government and has some advice: “Know your red lines, keep them to yourself, keep your cards to yourself and don’t give much away in advance”