Britain’s House of Commons rejected amendments to the “Brexit bill” and sent it back to the House of Lords on Monday night.
If the upper chamber accepts the bill this time, the UK government will have the power to trigger the formal process of leaving the European Union.
The Lords had added safeguards for EU citizens’ rights in post-Brexit Britain to the draft legislation. The proposal was defeated by 335 votes to 287.
Another amendment to give parliament a “meaningful vote” on whatever deal is eventually reached was rejected by 331 votes to 286, the Speaker of the House announced.
The bill will now be taken back to the House of Lords for another vote by the members of the upper house.
Scotland to split away?
Earlier Monday, the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, said she would lay the groundwork for a split from the UK as the British government prepared to press ahead with the formal process of leaving the European Union.
Sturgeon said it was clear that the UK was heading for a “bad deal” on Brexit, and planned to seek the legal authority next week to hold a new independence referendum before Britain leaves the EU.
Her decision to call for a new vote came as Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, was getting ready to invoke Article 50, which would set the UK on the road to splitting from the EU after up to two years of divorce talks.
May could begin the process as early as Tuesday if legislation passes the final hurdle. But Sturgeon’s announcement on Monday and the looming Dutch elections on Wednesday could push the timetable back.
Speaking in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said she would ask the Scottish parliament next week to grant her the power to call a new independence referendum.
Sturgeon said May had failed to engage with her call for Scotland to remain in the European single market after Brexit, and that Scotland risked being taken out of the EU against its will.
In the Brexit referendum, Scotland bucked the UK trend and voted 62% to 38% to remain in the EU. Sturgeon said it was for Scots to decide whether they followed the rest of the UK or forged their own path.
“I am ensuring that Scotland’s future … will be decided by the people of Scotland,” she told reporters at Bute House, the official residence of the Scottish first minister.
“It will be Scotland’s choice and I trust the people of Scotland to make that choice.”
Sturgeon said she wanted the referendum to take place between late 2018 and early 2019, before Brexit negotiations are completed. That would enable her to argue that Scotland should stay in the EU as the rest of the UK left.
The UK government must agree to a new Scottish vote. Downing Street on Monday said Sturgeon’s announcement was “divisive” and that May would seek a Brexit deal in the interests of the whole UK.
But the statement stopped short of saying the UK would block a new independence referendum. In the last one, in 2014, Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain in the UK. Downing Street said there was no appetite in Scotland for a re-run.
It would be politically difficult for the UK government to deny Scotland permission for another referendum. But it may seek to argue about the timing, to avoid fighting a battle over independence in Scotland at the same time as negotiating an exit from the EU.
John Curtice, Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, opinion polling on Scottish independence is close. “Nobody can be sure who would win,” he told CNN.
He said the “No” camp has generally held a slight lead over the past year and currently leads 52-48 if undecided voters are excluded, according to opinion polls tracked by the think tank ScotCen.
But polls suggest there are more than enough undecided voters to swing the results either way.
Pressure on May
May has come under increasing pressure from Parliament in recent weeks as the start of negotiations move closer.
On Sunday, lawmakers published a report which warned that the government’s failure to prepare for a scenario in which no deal is reached with the European Union over Brexit would be a “serious dereliction of duty.”
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said that the UK should be prepared for the “real prospect” that the two-year negotiation cycle may end in deadlock.
“The possibility of ‘no deal’ is real enough to require the government to plan how to deal with it,” head of the committee Crispin Blunt said in the report.
“But there is no evidence to indicate that this is receiving the consideration it deserves or that serious contingency planning is under way. The government has repeatedly said that it will walk away from a ‘bad’ final deal. That makes preparing for ‘no deal’ all the more essential,” he added.
