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

Total 39 Conservative rebels, incl. recently-resigned Lord Keen and Theresa May'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 'regret' 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

For details of all government defeats in the House of Lords since 2005 see our website below (today'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

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/

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