Jeremy said he wants to stand up for the 48 per cent as well as the rest – now this Tory turmoil gives him a chance to prove it

What we have seen in the House of Lords in the last few weeks amounts to a series of momentous decisions. Peers have delivered a double blow to the government by sending amendments back to the Commons – for debate today – on the legal rights of EU citizens and a “meaningful vote” on the final deal.

Now Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are due to join a demonstration tonight on the rights of people from the continent working here.

The first amendment agreed to by the Lords – on a vote of 358 to 256 – was to protect EU citizenship in the UK. This began the political ping-pong between the two houses of parliament.

Peers held two days of sitting and two committee days, continuing until after midnight with over 180 peers speaking. During the committee stage, an amendment was debated, regarding the rights of EU citizens in the UK after Brexit. This was originally debated in the Commons but was defeated by 332 to 290 by MPs. The amendment itself (Lords amendment 9B) called on ministers to, within three months of the triggering of article 50, unilaterally bring forward guarantees for the 3.5 million people from the bloc living in Britain.

The second amendment that was passed was to give MPs a “meaningful vote on Brexit”. This is something that the Commons voted against but with which the Lords disagreed by a vote of 366 to 268. We saw major Tory rebellion in the Lords and peers such as Lord Heseltine made passionate speeches to demand that the Government accept the Lords’amendments.

The amendment itself represented a humiliating defeat for the government. If the Commons agrees to it tonight then it will give MPs a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit deal before Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

The current Labour leadership also supported the government’s railroading of parliament on article 50. Moreover, Jeremy Corbyn initially agreed to the Tory timescale on Brexit and then issued a three-line whip, above, to support the Brexit Bill.

This three line whip undoubtedly stopped people from voting for the amendments and against the triggering of article 50. Eventually only 52 Labour MPs actually voted against the triggering of article 50. This left the main work to be done by the House of Lords. Peers made clear from the outset that they were not going to kill the Brexit bill, but try to amend and dilute it. This included putting up a fight for EU citizenship, nuclear agency Euratom and workers’ rights and protections.

Peers now have started a conflict between the government and the House of Lords. Now that they have sent amendments to the Commons it is for MPs to debate and re-vote to actually carry out the peers’ wishes and accept the amendment.

This is now where we, as the Labour Party, must get our act together. The leadership’s shambolic positioning on Brexit has disheartened our membership and failed to reflect values. Our values are to protect the needy, the vulnerable and the people who need a Labour voice.

The voice of Labour is now needed to stand up and, en masse, vote to protect our EU citizens. The fate of more than three million people stands with the Labour Party in conjunction with other parties to take a stand by enshrining their rights in the UK post-Brexit.

Labour’s uneasy support for Brexit has led to the leadership being heavily criticised by the peers and by party members, around 5,000 of whom signed an open letter calling on Jeremy to oppose Brexit.

It is clear that this Tory government does not care for the people; they claim that “no deal is better then a bad deal”. We cannot risk going on to World Trade Organisation tariffs and having charges imposed on us for buying and selling products to our European allies.

It was clear in last week’s Budget that the chancellor had not even given this a thought. Philip Hammond managed to get through the entire speech without directly referencing the elephant in the room, Brexit.

Meanwhile Jeremy says he wants to stand up for the 48 per cent and the 52 per cent. Now he has a chance to prove it.

Jonathon Proctor is chair of Labour Against Brexit.