- Peers have threatened to bombard the Brexit Bill with amendments in the Lords
- Jacob Rees-Mogg said PM should appoint slew of new peers to help the Bill pass
- House of Lords is already the world’s second biggest chamber with 800 peers
Theresa May should create up to 200 new peers to force the Brexit Bill through the House of Lords, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.
He said the Prime Minister should use her powers of patronage if ‘the House won’t play by the constitutional rule book’ and tries to block the landmark legislation.
The Bill has cleared the Commons and will had to the Lords later this month where many ardent Remainers have vowed to bombard it with a slew of amendments to force the PM to reshape her Brexit plans.
As ministers prepare for the next phase of parliamentary warfare to steer the Bill through, Mr Rees-Mogg urged the PM to appoint more peers to ease the journey.
Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured at Tory party conference last October) said the Prime Minister should use her powers of patronage if ‘the House won’t play by the constitutional rule book’ and tries to block the landmark legislation
The Tory MP for North East Somerset said: ‘She should keep up her sleeve the ability to appoint enough peers to get business through.
‘If the House won’t play by the constitutional rule book, then the PM has to use the extra measures available to her it could be a couple of hundred.
‘There is no point in going off half-cock.’
Speaking to The Telegraph’s Choppers podcast, he added: ‘They are not there to challenge the democratic will.’
His intervention comes days after he was elected the new leader of a powerful backbench group of Tory Brexiteers called the European Research Group.
But his remarks will spark controversy as the unelected House of Lords is already the world’ second largest parliamentary Chamber with around 800 members – second only to China’s national congress.
The Brexit Bill is heading to the House of Lords (pictured) where peers have threatened to bombard it with a series of amendments in a bid to force Theresa May to reshape her Brexit plans
And the Government has recently faced fresh calls for it to be reformed and radically reduced in size.
A blueprint for reform, published last last year, called for around 200 peers to be axed in order to bring its ballooning numbers under control.
The Brexit Bill cleared the Commons with just one defeat, the Tories do not have a majority in the House of Lords.
And many peers – including Labour bigwigs Lord Adonis and Lord Mandelson – want the Bill amended to try to force Britain to stay in the single market and customs union.
This would derail plans to regain control of Britain’s borders as the EU has said that Britain cannot stay in the single market without keeping free movement to people.