Michael Zander considers the Constitution Committee’s report on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill
- The committee believes the Bill ‘is fundamentally flawed from a constitutional perspective in multiple ways’ and proposes changes to make it ‘more fit for purpose’.
The respected House of Lords Constitution Committee issued a highly critical report on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill on January 29—the day before the House began its Second Reading Debate.
The committee is chaired by Baroness (Ann) Taylor, Leader of the House of Commons under Tony Blair. Its 12 members include former Lord Chief Justice Lord Igor Judge, Lord (David) Pannick QC, and political scientists Professor Lord Morgan and Professor Lord Norton of King’s College London and University of Hull respectively. The members are four Conservatives, four Labour, two Liberal Democrats and two crossbenchers. The 80-page report (2017-18 HL Paper 69) was unanimous.
In its Interim Report on the Bill, published 7 September 2017, the Committee concluded that the Bill raised ‘a series of profound, wide-ranging and interlocking constitutional concerns’. The 2018 report examines
