Live – House of Lords debate on Article 50

The House of Lords will start its 2-day debate on Article 50 at 1530h GMT. Expectations are for the bill to pass without amendments despite it potentially faces more challenges to be modified than the previous debate at the House of Commons.

It is unlikely that the House of Lords dare to defy the result from the public referendum and the large majority favouring the bill when it passed through the House of Commons.

Ultimately, the 2-day debate should then pose no threat to PM Theresa May’s intentions to trigger Article 50 at some point in March (likely end of month), while the reaction on the FX space should be fairly muted.

What is the House of Lords?

The House of Lords scrutinises bills that have been approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends Bills from the Commons. While it is unable to prevent Bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay Bills and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords acts as a check on the House of Commons that is independent from the electoral process. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons