EXCL Brexit minister warns peers they will cause ‘legal chaos’ if they wreck EU Withdrawal Bill
3 min read
A government minister has warned peers that they risk creating “legal chaos” if they try to wreck the Government's flagship Brexit legislation.
Steve Baker said that blocking the passage of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill would not stop Brexit, but instead mean Britain would have “holes” in its statute book on the day it leaves the bloc.
He issued the warning in an interview with the House magazine just days before the House of Lords finally gets its chance to scrutinise the legislation.
Ministers are braced for a series of defeats at the hands of Remain-backing peers who are eager to amend the bill in order to deliver a softer Brexit.
But Mr Baker said: "I approach this bill going into the House of Lords in a spirit of optimism, with greater optimism actually than I did when it went into the House of Commons, because we’ve got the experience of it going through the Commons.
"So, I do genuinely believe that the House of Lords takes seriously its responsibilities to scrutinise legislation; is committed to the rule of law and therefore will scrutinise this bill and pass it back to us in a condition which is working and I am optimistic about that.
“Now, if there are some peers who take another view, that will be very interesting to see. But I will be surprised if there is a majority in the House of Lords to wreck this bill, very surprised, because again, you can’t stop us leaving the European Union by wrecking this bill.
“You can only ensure that we leave the EU in a state of legal chaos. I don’t suppose very many members of the House of Lords will want to be seen to be responsible for creating legal chaos.”
He added: “The House of Lords is as committed to parliamentary democracy and the rule of law as any other parliament. The parliamentarians there are as committed as any in the House of Commons. We’ve got retired Law Lords, former senior civil servants, former members of parliament, and I cannot believe that they would want our statute book to have holes in it or otherwise not be functional on exit day."
When asked if he supported calls for Theresa May to appoint a number of Tory peers if the bill is obstructed, he replied: “That’s not the territory that the Government wants to be on. We want to treat them with dignity and respect and genuinely honour the fact they take seriously their scrutiny duties.”
PING PONG
Speaking to the Financial Times in December, Lord Lisvane, the former Commons’ Clerk, predicted that peers could send the EU (Withdrawal) Bill back to the Commons multiple times for further consideration.
But Mr Baker predicted that this process, known as ping pong, would be short, due to time constraints and the convention the elected House of Commons prevails.
“I would like to think that after their Lordships have adjusted the bill and the Commons has looked at it, we will have a relatively short ping-pong, partly because of the traditional conventions that the elected House gets its way in the end,” he said.
“But also, because time is short… exit day is March 2019, we need to get the statute book in a working condition by exit day.
“That means we have got these powers to use to adjust deficiencies, to correct deficiencies in retained EU law – if we extend ping-pong that just shortens the time to see it through. I hope we will be able to work with their Lordships constructively, and as a result I hope we’ll be able to have a short ping-pong.”
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