House
of Lords future at risk if it tries to block Brexit, leading cabinet
minister warns
'We
might have to do a Lloyd George and create a thousand peers,' key
Government figure says
Joe Watts Political
Editor @JoeWatts_
A leading cabinet
minister has warned the House of Lords that its future is at risk if
it tries to block Brexit.
The senior figure
said the government may have to "do a Lloyd George" and
flood the upper House with friendly peers if those already there
undermine the drive to implement the EU referendum result.
Some Tories in the
Lords, where Conservatives are in a minority, have demanded Theresa
May let Parliament vote on her preferred Brexit deal before talks
with the EU begin. If she refuses, they have threatened to stymie
other pieces of legislation the government needs to pass through the
Lords to make Brexit happen.
But the cabinet
minister told The Independent: "Unelected peers should think
very carefully about defying a decision taken by the public in a
referendum.
"We might have
to do a Lloyd George and create a thousand peers."
As a Liberal
Chancellor, George threatened to flood the Lords with new peers who
would pass his "People's Budget" of 1909, when the existing
Tory–dominated House refused.
It included a
land-tax designed to pay for wide-ranging social reforms and naval
expansion. A version of the reforming budget only passed after the
1911 Parliament Act clipped the wings of the upper House – ending
its veto on legislation and replacing it with a right to delay.
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Share: UK: Theresa
May lays out post-Brexit plan at party conference
British Prime
Minister Theresa May has promised to build a fairer and more united
country following the vote to leave the EU.
In 1980, left-winger
Tony Benn also said that if Labour won an election, it would abolish
the Lords by creating a thousand new peers to vote it out of
existence.
The issue has arisen
again as Ms May prepares to implement the historic decision reached
in the referendum to leave the European Union.
She has promised a
role for Parliament and the government admits both Houses may need to
ratify any deal at the end of negotiations.
MPs and peers will
also get to vote on the Great Repeal Bill, promised by the Prime
Minister at Tory conference.
But when it comes to
a vote at the start of the talks process, either on Ms May’s
negotiating position or on the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon
Treaty, the government has refused a vote.
Tory peer Patience
Wheatcroft has accused Theresa May of "using the royal
prerogative" to decide on her own what Brexit will look like,
without giving anyone else a say.
She has demanded
Parliament have a say on exactly what kind of Brexit the government
is pursuing.
Lords Speaker Norman
Fowler has also suggested peers could vote down legislation that
comes from the Commons.
One Tory peer has
told The Independent: "There are people who are worried that if
the Lords pushes back on this, it could be the end of the Lords.
"But the Lords
has to be reformed anyway, it has to happen. There are far too many
of us. So some of us don't see that as an impediment."
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