House of Lords
Parliament

Peers have voted 216 to 175 in favour of Amendment 3 to the Bus Services Bill, on more powers over enforcing moving traffic offences for local authorities.

Reality Check investigates whether Parliament will get to vote on plans for Brexit.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers are voting on Amendment 3, which would give local authorities more power to enforce "moving traffic offences" including unauthorised use of bus lanes, box junctions and no right turn signs.

The amendment's sponsor, the Lib Dem backbencher Lord Bradshaw, says that allowing local authorities to have these powers would help a bus industry that is in "quite deep crisis". 

He says his amendment would help local areas cut areas of congestion that slow buses down, which would make buses more attractive to potential users.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Angela Eagle says the Brexit vote marks a break with the UK's 50 year policy of replacing "our imperial past" with co-operation with other European democracies.

Turning on the government, she says: "This arrogance ill-suits an administration with no mandate for hard Brexit."

The former shadow cabinet member also says the price of leaving the EU should not be paid by the least well off.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who supports leaving the EU, says the only legal method to do so is to trigger Article 50.

Therefore, he argues, "we know that vote on 23 June was a vote to exercise Article 50".

By voting to leave the EU, he adds, "we have given back to this House the right to choose... how we are governed".

He thinks the Labour motion today is "misplaced" as there will be parliamentary scrutiny of the Brexit process. 

House of Commons
Parliament

"I was a Brexiteer in the 1970s," says Labour MP Jack Dromey. "What changed my mind was the social Europe of the 1980s."

He says Leave campaigners in the referendum "played the race and immigration card... which was nothing short of shameful", adding: 

House of Commons
Parliament

Another MP who campaigned for Remain, Conservative MP Anna Soubry, says anyone questioning her cross-party approach working with Labour MPs should "get real".

These are "extraordinary times", she says, later calling them "difficult, dangerous times".

She says the government should abandon its immigration target, saying: "We know the reality: people come here to work."

She adds that the idea that "a bit of upskilling here, a bit of upskilling there" will replace workers from other EU states is "nonsensical". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Emma Reynolds says that, like Nicky Morgan, she is a Remainer who accepts the referendum result.

She says the government's "mantra" that "Brexit means Brexit" is "meaningless" adding: "Brexit can take may forms."

The MP for Wolverhampton North East tells the House: "My constituents voted Leave for a variety of reasons, but they didn't vote Leave to become poorer."

MPs have a duty to hold the government to account and get "the best possible deal", she argues. Ms Reynolds says she backs restrictions on immigration in some areas.

House of Commons
Parliament

Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says she campaigned to remain in the EU but accepts the result of the referendum, and supports the government's amendment today. 

However, the Conservative MP also agrees with Labour's motion, which says "leaving the EU is the defining issue facing the UK".

The single market and freedom of movement "was not on the ballot paper" in June's referendum, she argues, adding that MPs on her side were elected on a Conservative manifesto to "say yes to the single market".

Ms Morgan tells the House she received a "heartbreaking" letter from a constituent who plans to leave the UK because she believes she will struggle to find employment because she is not British.

"That is not the country that I want to see," she says.

Finally she says she resents the suggestion that people like her who are calling for scrutiny of Brexit are trying to "thwart" the referendum result.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers are now beginning work on report stage of the Bus Services Bill.

The bill aims to give more powers to areas with directly elected mayors to run their bus services, powers similar to those held by the Mayor of London. There are also provisions in the bill to enable authorities to bring in smartcard ticketing, like London's Oyster card.

In 2014/15 more than half of all bus journeys in England were taken in London, where bus use grew. In the rest of England, bus use continued to fall, as it has done since the mid 1980s.

Amendments due for debate today include emission levels and concessionary fares for 16 to 19-year-olds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Hilary Benn says he accepts there is likely to be an agreement with the EU "in which we will get no tariffs on manufactured goods" once the UK leaves, but calls on ministers to make that clear as soon as possible.

The former shadow foreign secretary argues that there will need to be a "transitional agreement" covering the time from the UK's exit from the EU and a final trade deal being agreed. There is no guarantee of such a deal being agreed by the EU's other 27 member states during the two year negotiating period, he adds.

He criticises ministers for saying overseas doctors could stay for an "interim" period while more UK doctors are trained and says it is "unwise to talk about overseas students as if they were a problem to be cracked down on".

He adds that EU citizens are not "cards" to be bargained with, "they are people". The government needs to reassure EU citizens, Mr Benn says.

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbencher the Earl of Clancarty asks what the purpose is of a new school census question on nationality, which has been introduced for this school year. Schools have been asked to pass on data of the nationality of their pupils to the Department for Education.

Answering for the government Viscount Younger of Leckie says the purpose is to give "all children a better education" and the data will be used to help schools direct help to children who don't speak English as a first language. 

He emphasises that the information is only for the DfE, not for the Home Office.

In his follow up Earl of Clancarty says that parents are "appalled" and says that freedom of information requests have shown that the pupil database has been "repeatedly" used by the Home Office for immigration purposes. He calls for the nationality question to be scrapped.

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbencher Lord Hylton asks about Palestinian children held in military detention by Israel.

This year, Defence for Children International reported that more than 400 Palestinian children were being held in military detention on the West Bank.

Replying, Baroness Goldie tells the House that the government is "deeply concerned" and the issue has been raised with the Israelis repeatedly. 

She says the UK has pursued a course of "active diplomatic and ministerial engagement", and that pressure has led to changes to standard operating procedure by the Israeli military, including an end to night-time arrests of children.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative former Cabinet minister John Redwood says it's imperative to "knit our nation together" and that will be "easier than the tone of this debate would lead you to believe".

"We must work together to reduce uncertainty" for business, he advises, and show that the process of withdrawal will go at a quick pace.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem peer Baroness Sheehan asks about the UK’s £17m contribution towards security measures at the French port of Calais.

Last month, Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill told a committee of MPs that £1.9m of the money would be spent on building a wall to separate the so-called “Jungle” migrant encampment from the motorway that leads to the Port of Calais.

Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford says the wall is a priority for the UK and French governments to protect hauliers and other road users from being attacked by migrants.

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

House of Commons
Parliament

Former Lib Dem Nick Clegg says that over the years he could always rely on "fervent Brexiteers" to "marry their loathing of the EU to their passion for traditions of this House". 

He says those MPs "still hate Brussels" but seem to be "completely mute" on the scope of Parliament to scrutinise the process of EU withdrawal. 

House of Lords
Parliament

We're underway in the Lords, and the first question is on the government's devolution deal with the north-east of England.

Last month Communities Secretary Sajid Javid withdrew a proposed deal for a combined authority in the north east after four of the seven councils involved withdrew from the deal over post-Brexit funding worries. The government had promised an additional £30m a year for the region. 

Labour's Baroness Hollis rises to criticise the government's insistence of forcing combined authorities to take elected mayors alongside increased powers. She says an elected mayor isn't right for every area of the country.

For the government, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth says there needs to be "somebody accountable" for the new powers in a devolution deal and that the government believes an elected mayor is the best way of doing that.