UK Lords block Brexit laws

Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a heavy defeat in parliament's upper chamber on late Monday over proposed laws which would allow him to breach Britain's EU exit treaty. 

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

The House of Lords voted to strip those clauses from the bill in a series of defeats for the ruling Conservative Party.

Far from backing down, however, the government said it would retable the contentious clauses when the bill returns to the House of Commons, where it had previously passed by 340 votes to 256.

However, the clauses may no longer be needed if talks with the EU on how to make the Irish border work are successful.