The House of Lords voted resoundingly to remove controversial clauses from Boris Johnson’s Brexit legislation on Monday night, as peers accused the Government of behaving like a “third world dictatorship”. In a major defeat for the Prime Minister, peers sought to expunge sections of the Internal Market Bill which ministers admitted would break international law in a “very specific and limited way”. Peers voted by 433 to 165 to strip out the clauses which would allow the UK to renege on its obligations in the Withdrawal Agreement. During the debate, Tory grandee Lord Clarke warned that the legislation was a “rather Donald Trump-like gesture” and urged peers to join him in voting against the Government. “I’ve never heard anybody describe any particular proposal that is being forced upon us in these negotiations by Brussels which should have such a horrendous and catastrophic consequence that we need to be allowed to behave like the government of a third world dictatorship,” he said. The former chancellor said that no government he served in would have “contemplated for one moment” proposing the powers set out in the Bill. “It would have been rejected as incompatible with the way we govern this country, so it is the duty of this House to reject it,” he said. Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader, said the UK would set a “lamentable example” if it were to break international law. He said he was “dismayed” that the Government would choose to “break its word, to break international law and to renege on a treaty” as its first act of independence. He added: “I voted for Brexit and I do not regret or resign from that vote. But I want the independent, sovereign state that I voted for to be a country which keeps its word, that upholds the rule of law and honours its treaty obligations.” Meanwhile, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warned that it could have “unintended and serious consequences for peace and reconciliation” in Northern Ireland. He said that process “did not end with the Belfast Agreement”. “It remains an ongoing process, which requires awareness from leaders that almost every decision taken in relation to Northern Ireland will have an impact,” he added. Opponents claim the legislation risks violating the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, leading to fears it will put the Prime Minister on course to clash with Joe Biden, the US president-elect. During his campaign, Mr Biden warned that a trade deal with the US was “contingent” on the prevention of a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland. The Government confirmed last night that it would retable the clauses peers voted against. A Government spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the House of Lords has voted to remove clauses from the UK Internal Market Bill, which was backed in the House of Commons by 340 votes to 256 and delivers on a clear Conservative manifesto commitment. We will retable these clauses when the Bill returns to the Commons. “We’ve been consistently clear that the clauses represent a legal safety net to protect the integrity of the UK’s internal market and the huge gains of the peace process. “We expect the House of Lords to recognise that we have an obligation to the people of Northern Ireland to make sure they continue to have unfettered access to the UK under all circumstances.”
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