I love watching a good game of football, but I would never let that stand in the way of voting through environmental protections in the Lords. I’m furious that a ‘cross party’ group of peers have convinced Lord Krebs to drop the amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill today, just so that we can reach the amendment on giving the commons a meaningful vote before the game starts. Quite simply, the opposition whips were afraid that their peers would leave, while the Rugby and Cricket loving Conservatives stayed. This is no way to run Parliament and it’s time we replaced the Lords with an elected second chamber.

This action by the opposition frontbenches means that an amendment which has a lot of support within the commons, won’t gain the much-needed endorsement of the Lords. We had already pressured the government into making concessions as a result of the Lords’ intervention and I had hoped for more. We need a post-Brexit environmental regulator that will be independent and have real legal powers to hold the Government to account on environmental protection.

The Labour whips had already mucked up the vote on animal sentience as a result of their clumsy intervention and the truth is they really don’t understand green issues, or see them as a priority.

I’m fuming!