Brexit bill - as it happened: Government accused of 'cover up' as Labour vows to force release of secret papers
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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.
Labour's shadow Brexit minister is unimpressed with Steve Baker's responses.
Over in the House of Lords, Lord Campbell (Liberal Democrats) raises threat of leadership challenge to Theresa May on Brexit. "This is Chamberlain territory," he says
In the Commons, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer vowed to stage a repeat of the vote, last year, which forced the Government to release the notorious sectoral analysis of the EU withdrawal.
“The Secretary of State has a chance today to avoid a repeat of that exercise if he commits to publishing this new analysis in full. Will he do so?,” Sir Keir said.
He branded Brexit minister Steve Baker's response as "not good enough", adding: "Here we go again, Mr Speaker, Brexit impact assessments take two."
Sir Keir said: "Last year, the Secretary of State initially insisted that these reports existed in excruciating detail but they were so sensitive that nobody else could see them.
"After this House passed a binding humble address, the Secretary of State changed tack, telling the Brexit Select committee just last month that no economic forecast of outcome that have ever existed.
"Last night we learn that an analysis has been produced after all. This is now piling absurdity upon absurdity."
Labour MP Chris Leslie warned it would only be published when ministers had had a chance to “edit it, twist it distort it, redact the information in it”, adding: “A cover up pure and simple – and it stinks.”
Tory backbencher Philip Davies says the leak may have been done by "London-centric Remoaners" who he thinks want to scupper Brexit.
Hesaid: "We have here some London-centric remoaners, which could be a way of describing the shadow secretary of state, who have in the civil service, who didn't want us to leave the European Union in the first place and put together some dodgy figures to back up their case - who still don't want us to leave the European Union and are regurgitating some dodgy figures in order to try and reverse the result of the referendum."
Labour Brexiteer and former minister Kate Hoey asked whether "the person who leaked this within the Whitehall establishment would be better off moving and working in Brussels".
Mr Baker replied: "In relation to who leaked this, of course, we are carrying out the usual inquiries."
In an Urgent Questions running over an hour, Tory former minister Sir Nicholas Soames said many businesses were "already very nervous about the apparently cavalier attitude of some Brexiteer opinion to their companies' continued success".
Steve Baker dismissed the suggestion, saying: "The Government is not cavalier: it is precisely because we take seriously our duties that we are continuing to develop our economic analysis."
Labour Brexit Committee chairman Hilary Benn told MPs: "A lack of transparency is not in the national interest," as he asked for an explanation for the "discrepancy" between what his committee was told about sectoral impact assessments and what is now known.
Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach said: "Quite frankly minister I take exception to being told that it is not in the national interest for me to see a report that allows me to best represent my constituents."
MPs have moved onto another urgent question now about personal independence payments, asked by Labour's shadow disabilities minister Marsha de Cordova.
Labour MP Chris Leslie warned it would only be published when ministers had had a chance to “edit it, twist it distort it, redact the information in it”, adding: “A cover up pure and simple – and it stinks.”
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