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11 November 2020 / Michael Zander KC
Issue: 7910 / Categories: Features , Brexit , Constitutional law
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Withdrawal (dis)agreement (Part 4)

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Michael Zander believes that the Government will be forced to climb down on the Internal Market Bill

In brief

  • A deal with the EU would enable the Government to drop Part V without the embarrassment of having to give in to the Lords.

As predicted, the Government was heavily defeated (twice) in Monday’s House of Lords debate on the UK Internal Market Bill—433 to 165 and 407 to 148. The two votes removed the widely criticised Part V of the Bill giving the Government the power to break international law and ousting intervention by the courts.

Governments are familiar with defeats in the House of Lords, but there are defeats and defeats. This one is different. The Commons will, of course, reject the Lords amendments. The Bill will go back to the Lords where Part V will again be voted down. So far, so fairly normal. There is no limit to the permitted number of such exchanges. So, if this ‘ping-pong’ continues, at some point the Government will have

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