Thursday 20 October 2016 1:00 am

A House of Lords committee has blasted the government for offering “after the fact” Brexit scrutiny

Members of the House of Lords have slammed a lack of opportunities for parliament to scrutinise Brexit plans, just over a day after government lawyers said a vote on the final deal was “very likely”.

In the High Court battle over whether Theresa May has the authority to invoke Article 50 without parliament, government lawyer James Eadie this week said it was probable that any deal would require a vote among MPs.

However, a committee of peers has today said the House should be involved throughout the talks.

A report by the House of Lords EU committee argues that too much is at stake for ministers and officials to be able to take decisions behind closed doors.

Committee chair Lord Boswell said: “Ministers keep saying that they won’t offer a running commentary on the negotiations. What they offer instead, namely parliamentary scrutiny after the fact, is in reality not scrutiny at all – it could be no more than a rubber stamp.

“That is not good enough, given that these are the most important and complex negotiations the government has ever undertaken.”

At a recent session of Prime Minister's Questions, Theresa May suggested parliamentary scrutiny would come in three forms – the new Brexit select committee, regular questions in the House, and a vote on the Great Repeal Bill, but she stopped short of guaranteeing a vote.

However, Brexit secretary David Davis has also offered to ensure the UK parliament has at least the same access to information as the European parliament.

The peers said this will require the government to provide parliamentary committees with access to documents on the talks, with enough time for those to be scrutinised.

In addition, the committee said Davis and May should take those views into account, and give detailed responses to any recommendations they do not accept.