BORIS Johnson has suffered another Brexit defeat over his Withdrawal Bill in the House of Lords this afternoon.
Peers passed through an amendment on child migrant protections with a majority of 80 votes.
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The government suffered its fourth and biggest defeat on the Brexit Bill since it was sent to the House of Lords.
Lord Alfred Dubs forced his amendment through with 330 votes to 220, to restore the right of unaccompanied child refugees to be reunited with their families in a post-Brexit Britain.
Labour peer Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child, accused the government of abandoning children.
Promised protections for child refugees were ditched after the PM’s general election landslide victory.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Hamwee told the House of Lords: “Liberal Democrats will not stand by while the Conservative Government uses Brexit to undermine the UK’s proud tradition of providing sanctuary to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”
She urged the House of Commons, which is dominated by Mr Johnson’s huge majority, not to overturn the amendment.
A spokesman for the PM has said the policy on child refugees “has not changed” and said the government was “committed” to ensuring they could be reunited with their families.
“The government’s policy on child refugees has not changed and we will continue to do all we can to enable children to claim asylum and be reunited with their families,” he said.
Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay said it was only scrapped from the bill to strip it back to its core purpose of delivering Brexit.
Mr Johnson’s bill suffered its first setbacks yesterday after three amendments to the bill were passed.
Yesterday’s amendments would give EU citizens living in the UK the right to official documentation, prevent British courts from departing from European Court of Justice judgments.
Another amendment would allow legal cases to still be referred onto the British Supreme Court if they do diverge from EU law.
The PM’s official spokesman said “we are not intending to accept any amendment” earlier today.
Any amendments passed by the House of Lords can be overruled in the House of Commons, where the Tories command a huge 80-seat majority.
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Oxfam’s head of Humanitarian Campaigns Ruth Tanner welcomed the amendment passed in the Lords.
“Allowing children who have fled violence or persecution to be reuinited with their families is a basic right that should be offered by the UK, where or not we are part of the EU,” she said.
