Three cheers for the House of Lords. Labour might be trying to pack Britain’s second chamber with as many placemen as possible – but the noble peers are not going to take it lying down. For tonight, members of the Upper House inflicted yet another defeat on the government, this time over the deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Talk about Labour priorities, eh?
Peers voted voting narrowly in favour of renegotiating the agreement, to ensure that Britain would stop making payments if the island’s use ‘for military purposes became impossible.’ Lord Craig of Radley, the crossbench peer and former chief of the defence staff who tabled the key amendment, said that he felt the issue should be ‘sorted out before we get into formal ratification’. Despite government bleating that such a move would be ‘unhelpful’, peers backed Craig’s amendment 132 votes to 124.
Given their gargantuan majority, Labour MPs will almost certainly reverse the proposed changes to the Bill when it is returned to the Commons for deliberation. However, the move will delay the formal agreement of the deal, with campaigners hoping that it gives them time to have the decision blocked by judicial review. Mr S wonders just why ministers are so keen to ram this deal through, given the mounting scale of opposition in recent months.
Perhaps the Foreign Office is worried about a Caracas-style raid of US helicopters…
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