Brexit bill - as it happened: Government accused of 'cover up' as Labour vows to force release of secret papers

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Kier Starmer vows to force to Government to publish secret Brexit reports laying bare economic damage

Peers in the House of Lords have started the lengthy process of scrutinising Theresa May’s flagship Brexit legislation.

It comes after an influential committee in the Lords warned that the legislation – in its current form – is constitutionally unacceptable and will need to be substantially rewritten.

More than 190 members had lined up to speak during the two-day debate on the Bill’s second reading. During the first round of debates, on Tuesday, one of the best interventions came from the former Brexit minister Lord Bridges.

He challenged the Prime Minister to make clear what sort of relationship the Government wanted with the EU after Brexit, adding ministers have so far provided “no clear answers”, offering only “conflicting, confusing voices”.

He told peers he feared the Government would come up with “meaningless waffle” for its future relationship with Brussels, and that the implementation period would be “a gangplank into thin air”.

In the Commons – as Ms May headed for China on an official visit - Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary raised an urgent question following a leak of the Government’s Brexit impact assessments on Monday evening. The papers claimed that Britain will be worse off after leaving the bloc regardless of the deal.

Labour have now vowed to win a Commons vote to force the release of the secret analysis laying bare the economic damage from Brexit, as the affair was branded a “cover up” by one MP.

Key Points

• Labour to force Government to publish secret Brexit reports
• UK will be worse off in every possible scenario after Brexit, leaked government analysis concludes
• Theresa May flies to China in major bid to secure post-Brexit trade
• Brexit Bill is 'constitutionally unacceptable', House of Lords reports warns

[30 January 2018 11:47 · Ashley Cowburn]

[30 January 2018 11:53 · Ashley Cowburn]

Speaker John Bercow has granted an urgent question in the House of Commons on the Government's analysis of the long-term economic impact of Brexit upon the economy.

It is expected to take place from 12.30pm and will be asked by shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer.

[30 January 2018 12:09 · Ashley Cowburn]

Conservative peer Lord Hill says the EU Withdrawal Bill is "in someways, a boring Bill"

"We're experts at being boring," he adds.

[30 January 2018 12:16 · Ashley Cowburn]

Lady Smith said: "We all want to avoid this becoming a fiendishly complex process that weakens both parliamentary sovereignty and legal protections that our citizens rightly take as granted."

But she stressed the need to amend the legislation to provide greater clarity, and mocked the Prime Minister for arguing for a "clean bill", as if somehow amendments made "legislation dirty and impure".

She warned: "The process of Brexit is too important and too complex to be left to those who have no doubt, because only doubt brings questioning. And it is only through questioning that we examine an issue enough to get the detail right."

[30 January 2018 12:23 · Ashley Cowburn]

Lib Dem peer Lord Wallace has just took aim at the "unelected journalists" at the Daily Mail and Telegraph. 

Quite a bizarre description for a member of the House of Lords. 

[30 January 2018 12:25 · Ashley Cowburn]

From the Number 10 briefing just now on the leaked Brexit impact papers, a spokesman for the Prime Minister says the analysis was “initial work not approved by ministers” and only considered off the shelf scenarios rather than the bespoke deal the Government hopes to strike with the EU.

[30 January 2018 12:30 · Ashley Cowburn]

[30 January 2018 12:31 · Ashley Cowburn]

[30 January 2018 12:33 · Ashley Cowburn]

[30 January 2018 12:40 · Ashley Cowburn]

Lord Mandleson is now speaking. He says the government cannot behave as if it has a blank cheque to take the UK out of the EU in any vandalistic way it chooses

"He clearly wants all the trade benefits of the single market without actually being in it - I admire his ambition. But like the Prime Minister he is trying to dance on the head of a pig that does not exist."