Brexit: Peers vote to guarantee no ‘checks and controls’ at Irish border, in fresh defeat for May

Ex-Tory chairman Chris Patten condemns 'blundering into Northern Ireland with a policy which is clueless and deluded with a can of petrol and a box of matches in the other hand'

Peers have voted for tough legal protections to guarantee no “checks and controls” at the Irish border after Brexit, in another defeat for Theresa May.

The amendment gives teeth to the prime minister’s verbal promise of “no physical infrastructure” – which, it is feared, could become a magnet for terrorists – after some ministers cast doubt on it. Peers voted 309 to 242 in favour of the amendment - a majority of 67.

The defeat, the tenth on the main Brexit legislation, creates another headache for Ms May, who must decide whether to whip Tory MPs to overturn it in the House of Commons.

Anti-EU Tories have demanded the UK plough ahead with pulling out of the EU single market and customs union – and leave the question of future border checks to Dublin to decide.

But Chris Patten, the former Conservative party chairman, who put forward the Lords amendment, warned: “Two of the first murders in the Troubles were of customs officers.”

And, on the danger of provoking renewed violence, he told fellow peers: "It would be shameful if we did anything to make that more likely - it would be a stain on our history"

Hitting back at arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who accused the Lords of “playing with fire” by inflicting Brexit defeats, Lord Patten warned: “I'll tell you what playing with fire is - blundering into Northern Ireland with a policy which is clueless and deluded with a can of petrol and a box of matches in the other hand.”

The amendment compels the government to act in a way that is “compatible” with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended the Troubles.

It outlaws any infrastructure or checks that “did not exist before exit day and are not subject to an agreement between Her Majesty’s Government and the Government of Ireland”.

They would include “border posts, a requirement for customs or regulatory compliance checks, a requirement for security checks and random checks on goods vehicles”.

Despite the prime minister’s pledge, she has failed to rule out cameras at the border, once insisting she would not “give a running commentary”.

Meanwhile, the EU has rejected both UK proposals for new customs arrangements after Brussels – believing they would fail to deliver the promised open border.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, provoked fresh suspicions this week, when he hinted the UK would be happy to accept physical infrastructure, provided it was away from the border.

When it was put to Mr Davis that Britain had repeatedly promised no physical infrastructure, Mr Davis told peers: “At the border.”

Theresa May has promised a “robust” response in the Commons to the string of defeats in the Lords, but it is unclear if she will attempt to overturn them all.

Among them were a vote designed to keep the UK in a customs union and to bolster the “meaningful vote” on the prime minister’s exit deal.

It would ensure parliament, rather than the government, decides the next steps – prompting a protest by Liam Fox, the Trade Secretary, that it would allow Brexit to be delayed “indefinitely”.