Michael Zander on the final stages
- Despite inflicting five defeats in the House of Lords, the Opposition accepted that the Government would overturn all the amendments and that they would have to accept it.
- Royal Assent would be given in time for the Withdrawal Agreement to be considered by the European Parliament.
Until the Report stage in the House of Lords last Monday (January 20) the Government still hoped that its European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill would come back to the Commons unamended. But in the end the Lords decided there were issues on which they had to make a stand.
The Government does not command a majority in the Lords and the word had gone out from Ministers that amendments would not be welcomed. During the three days of the Committee stage in the Lords (14, 15,16 January) not a single amendment was put to a vote. Each proposer ran their proposition up the hill but then bottled and withdrew the amendment.
One reason obviously was the so-called Salisbury Convention which forbids the Lords
