There’s a couple of points worth making.
The Lords (and now it seems “some Ministers”) cannot concern themselves with the plight of UK citizens abroad even if they wanted to. It is not within their gift to bestow such rights as that is a matter for the national governments of the nations concerned (or more likely, the EU, who will tell them what they must do). However, as I mentioned in a post last week, the way to ensure those rights are more likely to be protected is to leave the matter until a bilateral agreement can be reached. It cannot be discussed before A50 is triggered. Mrs May tried to do so but Frau Merkel vetoed it.
However, it’s all unnecessary. Firstly, there is not a cat in hell’s chance of 3m EU citizens being booted out of the UK, with or without any agreements or amendments. There not even a chance of 300 being forcibly repatriated. In fact I’d go so far as to say not even one will be so effected. But secondly, and not mentioned at all in this debate, there is something called the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The UK and (as far as I can see) all the other 27 EU nations are signatories. What it says, very roughly as I interpret it, is that rights acquired by individuals under an existing treaty are not lost when the underlying treaty that bestowed them is rescinded or terminated. This means that the rights of EU citizens to live in the UK and the rights of UK citizens to live elsewhere in the EU, which were gained and continued under the various EU treaties cannot be withdrawn when the UK revokes the Lisbon Treaty upon our departure.
I don’t know why no politicians have looked up this bit of legislation. I know why no members of the Lords have. They see their “amendment” which they voted through last week as an ideal way to stamp their mark on the Brexit process which they seek to delay, hamper or even blow out of the water entirely. But I don’t understand why “some Ministers” have not got one of their Learned Friends to thumb through it to see if my interpretation is correct.
The people "playing politics" with this are principally the Euromaniacs and in particular Frau Merkel. Mrs May was perfectly willing to conclude a bilateral agreement with the EU in advance of A50 being triggered. Frau Merkel put the block on it which indicates to me that she wants to use the issue as some sort of bargaining tool.