BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AA) – A vote Wednesday by the upper house of the U.K. parliament that favors an amendment to protect EU nationals in the U.K. after Brexit has dealt a blow to the government’s exit plans. The 356-256 vote is the first defeat for the bill that gives parliament the authority to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Article 50 is the document that signals the formal intention to leave the EU. The amendment requires the government to introduce proposals to ensure EU citizens in the UK have the same residency rights after the Brexit and within three months after Article 50 is triggered. MPs, however, will have a say in whether to remove the change when the bill is returned to the lower house. More than half of British voters, 52 percent, last June opted to leave the union in a referendum that was pledged by former Prime Minister and then-Conservative Party leader David Cameron during the 2015 election campaign. Brexit will end the U.K.’s 46-year membership in the EU. The Article 50 bill, which was submitted to parliament after a top British court ruling said the government must seek lawmakers’ approval to trigger Article 50, was passed to the House of Lords by a majority vote in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Theresa May has set the end of March as the deadline to trigger Article 50.
