Upper house of UK Parliament ready to allow delayed Brexit, says Letwin

There is overwhelming support in parliament's upper chamber for legislation to force Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a delay to Brexit to prevent the risk of leaving without a deal on April 12, one of the lawmakers behind the bill said on Wednesday. Lawmakers are seeking to pass the legislation through all of its stages in the House of Commons on Wednesday, but have no control over the upper chamber, the House of Lords, through which legislation usually passes more slowly.

"I think that there is overwhelming support in the House of Lords for this measure and that therefore we anticipate it will, in all probability, ... pass through the House of Lords very rapidly," Conservative lawmaker Oliver Letwin told parliament. "To that end, the House of Lords has in fact already passed a motion which provides for the expeditious consideration of exactly this form of bill."