UK's Lords condemns Brexit bill as UK-EU talks stay stalled

Britain’s upper house of Parliament delivered a resounding condemnation of government’s contentious new Brexit legislation on Tuesday, as a standoff continued between U.K. and European Union over future tre relations.

House of Lords voted 395-169 to d words to Internal Market Bill expressing “regret” for legislation and saying it “would undermine rule of law and dam reputation of United Kingdom.”

bill breaches part of legally binding Brexit withdrawal agreement by allowing Britain to override key provisions on rrn Ireland, only part of U.K. that shares a land border with EU. U.K. government says bill is needed as an insurance policy to ensure smooth tre among all parts of U.K. matter what happens after Brexit.

bloc sees it as a flagrant breach of an international treaty that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself signed less than a year ago.

Scores of peers spoke in Lords to condemn bill before Tuesday’s vote, which is likely to be first of many attempts to derail legislation.

“This bill seeks to make Parliament complicit in a scheme that openly flouts two foundational principles -- that agreements once me should be kept and that government is t above law,” said David Anderson, an independent member of Lords. “How could we possibly go along with that?”

bill has been approved by House of Commons, but faces strong opposition in Lords, where Johnson’s Conservative Party doesn't have a majority. Members of unelected Lords will try to amend it in coming weeks before sending it back to elected Commons, which gets final say.

legislation has soured talks between Britain and EU on a new tre deal. Britain left EU politically on Jan. 31, and will make an ecomic break when a transition period expires on Dec. 31.

U.K.-EU talks ground to a halt last week, with each side calling for or to compromise in order to secure agreement. EU said it was happy to keep talking, but Johnson said negotiations were over unless re was a “fundamental” shift from bloc. He told British businesses to prepare for a -deal ecomic break with EU at end of year.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, spoke by phone Tuesday for a second straight day, without any breakthrough.

British prime minister’s office called conversation “constructive,” but also said thing h changed since a day earlier, when U.K. said talks could only resume if bloc accepted “that movement needs to come from EU side as well as U.K.”

Barnier tweeted that he’d told Frost: “My mess: we should be making most out of little time left. Our door remains open.”