Spotlight turns to House of Lords as Brexit bill makes its way into law

It's now the turn of the UK's Upper House to approve the Bill 9 Feb

The bill, which gives the UK govt the authority to trigger Article 5, was last night approved by 494 votes to 122 in the Houser of Commons and now moves to the Lords.

This is all down to a Supreme Court ruling last month that PM May first requires Parliament's permission and the next stage will begin after the Lords returns from recess on 20 Feb.

Shadow business secretary Clive Lewis was one of 52 Labour MPs to defy party orders to back the bill in the Commons and he resigned from the front bench.

Now Brexit minister David Davis calls on the Lords to:

"do its job and to do its patriotic duty and actually give us the right to go on and negotiate that new relationship"

There will no doubt be some degree of opposition and amendments but it's highly unlikely that the Lords will defy the will of the people. Indeed a govt source has told the BBC that the Lords will face an "overwhelming" public call to be abolished if it opposes the bill.