House of Lords
Parliament

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Conservative Lord Dobbs says that those who speak outside the Lords "of sabotaging Brexit" are helping those in the press who are "sharpening their knives".

He states that the House is not well liked, and is not "entirely fit for purpose," and that by changing the bill, then this point "becomes inescapable".

He says that 100 years ago, the House of Lords was accused of being "one-sided" and "irresponsible" by Winston Churchill when it denied the People's Budget of Lloyd George.

"With these modest changes, everything will change," he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs now move on to an urgent question from shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer on leaked government documents about the performance of the UK economy after Brexit.

BuzzFeed News reports, external the Whitehall analysis found growth over the next 15 years could be up to 8% lower than if the UK stayed in the EU.

The document is said to look at the likely impact of different scenarios.

House of Lords
Parliament

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UKIP former leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch says he backs the bill "but I fear it will never be used" as Brexit may not happen.

He calls on the government to change its negotiating strategy, complaining "they have never done a deal in their lives" and are therefore making "an appalling job of Brexit".

He rejects criticism of delegated powers, saying that for years we had no say in legislation coming from the EU - "why do they now care if our elected government repeals or amends some of it?"

House of Lords
Parliament

Liberal Democrat Lord Wallace of Saltaire wonders how the government can be granted "such wide ministerial discretion" at a time when there is such "open disagreement" on the future of the UK's relationship with the EU.

"What is a bespoke agreement?" he asks.

"This House will therefore be justified in narrowing the degree of ministerial discretion this bill permits," he adds.

He quotes Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech, external on how important the EU is to international co-operation, security and prosperity.

Select Committee
Parliament

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At a committee hearing earlier, the SNP's Chris Stephens asks what involvement the Pensions Regulator had in Carillion.

Robin Ellison, char of trustees of the Carillion Defined Benefits Pension Scheme, says that "we don't run the company" and states that he does not sit in on board meetings.

"The margins that Carillion were making were so small" in comparison to other companies, he adds.

Mr Gethins asks if Mr Ellison ever considered resigning or whistleblowing over the situation.

"I don't think resigning adds money to the pot. The question is how much money can you get in the pot and we worked as a team to try and get as much money as we could," Mr Ellison states.

House of Commons
Parliament

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A quick check-in at the Commons where Labour's Laura Pidcock tells MPs the firm has paid out over £550m in dividends since 2010.

During the same period, she adds, the company also ran up a pension deficit of £587m.

She says that the company's former CEO got a £1.5m bonus package in 2016. She calls on the government to join her in "condemning this scandal".

In response Business Minister Andrew Griffiths that "any payments due" to former directors "have been stopped".

There will be a "through investigation" of payments to directors, he adds, and the Insolvency Service has the power "to claw back" payments if necessary.

As the House of Lords continues its debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill, things will hot up in the Commons with an urgent question at 12.30pm on the leaked Brexit papers that indicate the UK economy will grow more slowly outside the European Union, no matter what deal is struck with Brussels.

We'll be reporting it live here...

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Taylor of Bolton, who sits on the Constitution Committee, warns that the bill in its present form risks "undermining legal certainty in this country".

She further warns it could destabilise the current devolution settlement.

On delegated powers, she says "we need more" than the sifting committee proposed by the government, suggesting ministers should have to state why it's appropriate to make a change by regulation.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Speaker number seven is the Conservative Lord Hill of Oareford who says the bill "being boring doesn't mean it isn't important".

Lord Hill, a former EU commissioner, declares that he voted to Remain as the UK economy is heavily based on services, "and it made no sense" for that part of the economy to be bound by rules it could not govern.

As for the EU bill, he says it provides speed for ministers but also allows "proper scrutiny".

He urges the government to be honest with people about who will be the "winners and losers" of Brexit, and how to "mitigate those losses and accelerate the wins".

We are not going to be able to converge and diverge where it suits us, he says.

House of Lords
Parliament

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The Bishop of Leeds says Brexit is about "what sort of Britain we want to live in", lamenting that the referendum led to "the normalisation of lies" and "demonising of people who venture to hold a contrary view".

Turning to the bill, he says parliamentary scrutiny "might be inconvenient" but "there must be a limit to the use of powers" granted to ministers.

The current drafting of the bill does not get the balance right between executive and parliamentary power, he argues.

House of Lords
Parliament

Convenor of the crossbench peers and chair of the EU Committee, Lord Hope of Craighead, says the UK needs a seamless transfer.

He is critical of the EU bill, stating: "The bill comes to the House in a sorry state."

He adds that the bill was drafted many months ago before recent developments on Brexit, including ongoing negotiations and the need for a transition period.

"The government has failed" so far in bringing forward amendments which will rectify these problems, he says.

He says that ministers see it as an enabling bill, but it is in fact a bill which will bring about huge change for the UK.

It has been written in a way that is "naive and very damaging," he adds.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Lib Dem leader in the Lords, Lord Newby, says the bill "exhibits the arrogance and incompetence of the government in equal measure".

He pledges not to "derail it or unnecessarily spin out debate" but to "scrutinise it carefully and where we feel it necessary, seek to amend it".

"What the government is seeking to do across the piece is to bypass all normal parliamentary rules and scrutiny," he claims, referring to the delegated powers created under the bill.

There's been a lot of discussion about whether the Lords intends to block Brexit. It's a bit more subtle than that...

House of Lords
Parliament

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Shadow Lords leader Baroness Smith of Basildon opens for Labour, describing Brexit as "a process not an event - and it's a parliamentary process".

She says that this process is being overseen by "a weak prime minister buffeted from one position to another by warring factions in her party".

The bill as currently drafted is "constitutionally unacceptable", she warns, and the Lords has work to do on clarifying the role of judges when it comes to interpreting retained EU law and the question of devolved powers.

"It's too important to be left to those who have no doubt," she argues.

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Lord Adonis quotes some rather colourful remarks from Brexit Minister Lord Callanan, who'll have the job of responding to the debate tomorrow.

He says Lord Callanan told a Conservative party gathering that "the House of Lords is the epitome of the establishment, full of ex-Foreign Office luminaries and people who think that their view is much more important than that of common oiks or the public as a whole".

The minister takes it in good humour.

House of Commons
Parliament

While the Lords talks Brexit it's business as usual in the Commons which starts at 11.30am with questions to energy and business ministers.

After this there are two urgent questions from Labour: the first on leaked documents about the economic impact of Brexit, the second on a review of Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

It comes after the Department for Work and Pensions said every person receiving payments from the disability benefit will have their case reviewed.

This afternoon MPs will be debating the latest legislative phase for the planned HS2 rail line.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Labour's Lord Adonis moves his motion, which "regrets" that people will not be able to vote on the final Brexit deal.

"The final say should rest with the people once they see the terms proposed by the government," he tells the chamber.

He says the government is seeking to "put up thousands of trade barriers where they don't currently exist" and to allow regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and the EU while divergence occurs for the rest of the UK.

"We owe the House of Commons and the public our advice," he says.

House of Lords
Parliament

A Lords committee published a damning report on the EU Withdrawal Bill on Monday.

The Lords Constitution Committee called the legislation, bringing existing EU law into UK law, "fundamentally flawed".

Peers take their committees seriously and are likely to raise some of the report's conclusions.

The committee says the bill is "constitutionally unacceptable".