Anne Main urges MP to send strong message to unelected Peers

16th January 2018

Anne Main urges fellow MP, Dominic Grieve, to push amendments to send a strong signal to unelected Lords.

Since the referendum over 18 months ago, some Peers have suggested that they will seek to water down, or block, Brexit. Mrs Main wants the unelected House to scrutinise the Bill, and not play politics in order to scupper the will of the British people.

Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con)

My right hon. and learned Friend says that he does not wish to divide the House. However, if he had tabled an amendment and divided the House, and then that vote had been lost, it would have sent a powerful message to their lordships not to mess with the Bill and that the will of the House had been firmly expressed. There would have been an advantage in his position, if he had maintained it.

Mr Grieve

There might have been, but as a loyal member of the Conservative party over many years, I have always been of the opinion that the best way to try to influence one’s party’s policy is in the quietest way possible. As this issue has the merit of being able to succeed in that way, I shall stick to my strategy. Of course, if and when I think it necessary for me to do something else, I could, very reluctantly, be forced to do so. On this matter, however, I prefer to leave it.

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Watch: Anne Main, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh, talks about the Rohingya crisis and urges support for @DECappeal pic.twitter.com/FFL0lq8O0A

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