House of Lords delivers Brexit setback to UK government by supporting EU citizens’ rights

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An advertising van with an anti-Brexit poster drives past the Houses of Parliament in central London. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:55am, 2 Mar 2017Updated: 9:57pm, 2 Mar 2017

Britain’s unelected House of Lords on Wednesday handed the government a stinging – though likely temporary – defeat on its plans to leave the European Union, resolving that EU citizens should be promised the right to stay in the UK after it quits the bloc.

By a vote of 358 to 256, Parliament’s upper chamber inserted a clause protecting EU nationals’ status into a bill authorising the government to begin EU exit talks.

The Labour Party’s Brexit spokeswoman in the Lords, Dianne Hayter, said Europeans living in Britain “need to know now, not in two years’ time or even 12 months’ time,” what their rights are.

“You can’t do negotiations with people’s futures. They’re too precious to be used as bargaining chips,” Hayter said.

A video grab shows the House of Lords Chamber at the start of the second day of The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill - Committee Stage, in London on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Pro-EU politicians hailed the vote as a symbol of commitment to Europeans living in Britain. But it is unlikely to turn out to be binding on the government. The change must go to a vote in the elected House of Commons, where there is a strong chance it will be rejected, since Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party has a majority in the lower chamber.

The government said it was “disappointed” by the Lords’ vote, and is expected to try to overturn the amendment in the Commons later this month.

By leaving the EU, Britain will be withdrawing from the bloc’s policy of free movement, which allows citizens of the bloc’s 28 member states to live and work in any of the others. That leaves 3 million EU nationals in the UK, as well as 1 million Britons in other member countries, uncertain whether they will be able to stay in their jobs and homes once Britain reasserts control over EU immigration.