Lord Wood:

I am very pleased to be with the Deputies and Senators. My name is Stuart Wood and I am a Labour member of the House of Lords and a former adviser on Northern Ireland to former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I have an interest in the topic from that perspective.

I have a political thought, possibly with my Labour hat on, and other colleagues will have different views. Yesterday's motion does not have much legislative force. However, it has much political force and it was the biggest British Government defeat since the reform of the House of Lords in 1999, when almost all hereditary peers were taken out of the House of Lords. Some leading Conservative Brexiteers supported the amendments, along with a large number - over 100 - non-affiliated peers. This is important as if the vote were to be seen as about Brexit, it would have limited force. The size of the vote suggests there is a general consensus that this is about the rule of law rather than Brexit itself, and this has a political force.

As Lord Kinnoull has said, the next issue is whether, over the next few weeks, the negotiations give the British Government space and justification to introduce its own amendments to the Bill. It is very difficult to see how the Bill can proceed unamended, whatever one's political viewpoint. That really is the political nexus for the next three or four weeks.