HUGE defeat in the House of Lords on the #InternalMarketBill - we believe the biggest since Lords reform in 1999

395 peers opposed the government, just 169 supported, a margin of 226. Biggest prior defeat was by 191 on the Counter-Terrorism Bill in 2008 https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Lords/Division/2343">https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Lor...

Total 39 Conservative rebels, incl. recently-resigned Lord Keen and Theresa May& #39;s former Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell.

Also Michael Howard and various other former Cabinet ministers.

103 independent Crossbenchers against the govt; just one in favour. All 7 Bishops against.

The vote was on the & #39;regret& #39; motion proposed by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge.

To regret "that Part 5 of the bill contains provisions which, if enacted, would undermine the rule of law and damage the reputation of the United Kingdom.”
https://lordsbusiness.parliament.uk/ItemOfBusiness?itemOfBusinessId=84940&sectionId=38&businessPaperDate=2020-10-20">https://lordsbusiness.parliament.uk/ItemOfBus...

For details of all government defeats in the House of Lords since 2005 see our website below (today& #39;s will be added soon).

The previously biggest defeat since 1999 was on 13 October 2008. The 2nd biggest was just before these records began, in March 2005 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/parliament/changing-role-house-lords/government-defeats-house-lords">https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitut...

Worth a reminder of this recent piece by Meg Russell on our blog.

It predicted: "Peers will most likely want provisions which explicitly entertain the possibility of breaking international law taken completely out of the bill"

So what next? Read on... https://constitution-unit.com/2020/09/13/will-the-lords-block-the-uk-internal-market-bill/">https://constitution-unit.com/2020/09/1...

Very useful summary here of the constitutional position re next steps in a showdown between the Lords & the government on the #InternalMarketBill

Explained succinctly in the speech by former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler, via Lord Anderson ( @bricksilk) https://twitter.com/bricksilk/status/1318554891116228610">https://twitter.com/bricksilk...