On March 7, the Lords passed a major amendment to the Bill which authorises the start of negotiations on our withdrawal from the EU. Under this amendment, both Houses of Parliament must approve the terms on which the country leaves the EU, the future relationship between the UK and the EU, and, if there is no agreement, the decision to leave. Opposed by the government and the vast majority of Conservative peers, the amendment was passed by 366 votes to 268.
*It was the largest vote ever, not just for “nearly 200 years” as reported in the press. The total number who voted—634—is a record for the Lords.
*But it was not the largest as a proportion of those eligible to vote. That did indeed take place “nearly 200 years” ago at 6.30am on 8 October 1831 when the Great Reform Bill was defeated by 199 to 158 in a House of c. 400 (no exact figure seems to exist)—over 85 per cent of the total voting strength as opposed to 78.9 per cent on Tuesday.
*Defeat for a government in the Lords by the largest numerical margin on a significant constitutional issue occurred on 8 September 1893 when Gladstone’s Second Home Rule Bill was rejected by 419 to 41 in a House of 560, making it a vote with a higher percentage turnout than that on Tuesday. Lloyd George’s “People’s Budget” which was rejected by 370 to 75 on 30 November 1909 in a slightly larger House brought the second largest government defeat in the Lords.
On March 10 Alistair Lexden was interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 programme “The Week in Westminster”. He said that, through the vote, the Lords had exercised their right to ask the Commons to think again. If the amendment is rejected in the Commons, he continued, the Lords should then give way and not prolong dispute through further votes in favour of this amendment (or of a second amendment relating to EU citizens resident here), which would carry with them severe risk of constitutional crisis and give rise to a perception in the country of a “peers versus the people” conflict. He added that he did not expect the Liberal Democrats, who have behaved with their customary irresponsibility in the Lords this week, to accept this course of action. Peers in all other parts of the House must overrule them.