Michael Gove’s plan to get rid of the legacy river pollution law faces defeat in the Lords
Good morning. Politics is about choices, and yesterday, after equivocating for a fortnight, the Labour party made a choice. It has decided to vote against Michael Gove’s plan to get rid of a legacy river pollution law (nutrient neutrality, in the jargon) in the hope that this will lead to thousands more homes being built.
Ministers are now at risk of losing when peers vote on the issue later today. Defeat is not inevitable – the Conservatives have more peers than Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined – but crossbenchers have the swing votes in debates like this, and the Lords has consistently voted for measures to protect the environmental protections that came with membership of the EU.
