Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to suffer a heavy defeat in parliament's upper chamber yesterday over laws allowing him to breach Britain's EU exit treaty - a proposal which has been criticised by US president-elect Joe Biden. 

The Internal Market Bill is designed to protect trade between Britain four nations after Brexit. It contains clauses ministers say are needed to protect Northern Ireland, but would also break international law in a "specific and limited" way.

The House of Lords will vote around 1900 GMT on whether to strip those clauses from the bill. Johnson's government is widely expected to lose.

The publication of the bill in September provoked criticism with some saying it would wreck Britain's international standing.

Many saw the bill as a negotiating gambit to win concessions from the EU in wider negotiations on a trade deal. Brussels has launched legal action against Britain over the proposals.