UK government to trigger Brexit amid calls for second Scottish independence vote
By
Chris Marsden
15 March 2017
Prime Minister Theresa May cleared the final hurdle to triggering Article 50 beginning Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) Monday. But she did so amid the crisis generated by Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon demanding a second referendum on Scotland’s independence from the UK.
The intervention by Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, was the most dramatic expression of broader divisions within ruling circles over Brexit and focused on the primary issue that unites the nationalists with the City of London—continued access to the European Single Market.
Monday evening’s debate had to deal with two amendments proposed by Britain’s unelected House of Lords. The government’s EU Withdrawal Bill was passed after the government had comfortably won votes on two Lords’ amendments. MPs voted by 335 votes to 287 to overturn the Lords amendment on inserting a guarantee of the status of EU citizens resident in the UK, with six hard-line pro-Brexit Labour MPs joining with the Conservatives. A second amendment on holding a final “meaningful vote” on any deal after the conclusion of Brexit talks was voted down by 331 to 286 with only two Tories rebelling. Labour MPs were then whipped by party leader Jeremy Corbyn to vote in favour of the Brexit bill.
Peers later accepted the decision on EU citizens by 274 to 135 and voted by 274 votes to 118 not to challenge the Commons again over a parliamentary veto on the deal struck on Brexit. On the rights of EU citizens to live and work in the UK, just 25 Labour peers sided with the Liberal Democrats, with Labour’s spokeswoman Baroness Hayter attacking the Lib Dems for “falsely…