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Lord Tebbit says peers are “thinking of nothing but the rights of foreigners”

Lord Tebbit is pictured at his home in Bury St Edmunds Archant

Outspoken Conservative Lord Tebbit told peers they were thinking of “nothing but the rights of foreigners” as the government was braced for its first defeat on its Brexit bill.

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The former cabinet minister, who lives in Suffolk, said it should be the first duty of parliament to care for the interests of its citizens.

Members of the House of Lords are pushing for guarantees over the rights of EU nationals living in the UK after Brexit.

Shadow Brexit minister Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town warned against EU nationals being used as “bargaining chips” in negotiations to quit the EU.

She said the concerns of EU nationals here and British expats living in Europe shouldn’t be “traded against each other”.

Opening debate on the Brexit Bill, she said the Government should remove the uncertainty now.

“These people need to know now - not in two years’ time or even 12 months’ time. They simply can’t put their lives on hold,” Lady Hayter said.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has written to every peer urging them not to back the Opposition amendment to the legislation.

The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill has passed unamended through the Commons with big majorities.

Any changes to the legislation in the Lords would mean it would have to go back before MPs putting at risk Theresa May’s timetable for triggering Article 50 and beginning Brexit talks by the end of this month.

Speaking in the debate, Lord Tebbit, told peers it was the first duty of the parliament of the UK is to care for the interests of the citizens of this kingdom.

“If we are to be concerned about anyone’s rights after Brexit to live anywhere on this continent after Brexit, it should be for the British people to live freely in peacefully in other parts of Europe.

“Somehow or other we seem to be thinking of nothing but the rights of foreigners.”

He added that Britain did not have the power to look after its citizens overseas adding: ““not in these days when we don’t have any gunboats”.