Brexit latest: Ministers give in to rebels on Henry VIII powers

Ministers today gave a big concession to Brexit rebels over the use of so-called Henry VIII powers.

The Government accepted demands for a cross-party committee with power to prevent over-use of the archaic powers, which have been dubbed “rule by decree”.

It follows a threatened revolt against the proposal to empower ministers to alter hundreds of laws without parliamentary approval as a way of coping with a stream of Brexit changes.

The new sifting committee will decide which issues can be waved through and which are so important that they must go to a debate and vote in the House of Commons.

Downing Street said it would accept an amendment to the Withdrawal Bill put down by the chairman of the Procedure Committee. In reality, ministers are thought to have drafted the amendment.

Henry VIII powers are named after a medieval statue that let the Tudor monarch rule by proclamation. Under the modern equivalent, there are powers in the Withdrawal Bill for ministers to use secondary legislation, which does not need a new Act of Parliament, on an unprecedented scale when over 1,000 pieces of European law are transferred en masse to the state books.

Theresa May is being warned she faces a risk of defeat on another amendment this week as MPs vote on the line-by-line examination of the Withdrawal Bill.

Conservative MP Antoinette Sandbach said she will rebel on another amendment to give Parliament a meaningful vote on the outcome of talks. She said it was “crucially important” and added: “Taking back control was taking back control to Parliament and not to the executive, to government.”

One senior so-called Brexit mutineer said it was not clear if the Government was going to push it to a vote, but if they did “it would be a very high-risk strategy”.