House of Cards author Lord Dobbs has warned fellow peers it would be “sad and unwise” to try to sabotage what he dubbed “the People’s Brexit”.
The Tory said while the role of the House of Lords was to advise and improve legislation, it was not to “obstruct or overturn”.
Speaking at the second reading of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, the best-selling novelist highlighted the constitutional crisis sparked more than a century ago by the Lords rejecting the “People’s Budget” of David Lloyd George’s government.
It led to legislation that curbed the powers of the unelected chamber.
To those who have spoken of sabotaging Brexit, Lord Dobbs said: “That is sad and unwise.
“They won’t sabotage Brexit but they might very well sabotage the credibility of this House.”
He added: “We have a duty to advise, to enhance, to improve where we can but not to obstruct or overturn, least of all to sabotage.
“Undoubtedly the Bill needs scrutiny and improvement.
“I hope that will be our finest hour… but am I being naive in thinking that there are those who talk of their parliamentary duty and the need for delay when in fact they intend to destroy?”
He went on: “The ambition of this Bill is modest. Simply to ensure continuity from day one. Very little will change.
“Yet I grant in these modest changes everything will change. We will bring back government closer to the people. We will once again make our own laws and be subject to our own courts.
“That’s what the people have given their voice to and that is what we must enable through this bill in a timely manner.
“A hundred years ago it was the People’s Budget. Today it is is the People’s Brexit.”
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