Brexit trigger Bill set for final vote in Parliament

Legislation allowing the prime minister to start the process cleared Parliament last night and Mrs May told MPs she would come to the Commons later this month to announce when she has taken that step.

The bill will now be sent immediately back to the upper house for debate and approval, expected to start from 1930 GMT.

The EU Withdrawal Bill was passed unamended after peers voted by 274 votes to 118 not to challenge the Commons again over the issues of EU residency rights and whether Parliament should have a veto on the terms of exit.

Ministers argued that support for either amendment would have tied the hands of Britain’s negotiations with Brussels.

Ministers are hopeful the Commons will overturn the Lords amendments in a vote on Monday afternoon, although some europhile Conservative MPs may rebel.

Between six and eight weeks after London triggers the process, the EU ministers will approve the negotiating directives and formally give the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, the mandate to start negotiations.

She could, in theory, do it as soon as Tuesday. “I just don’t think the numbers are there. the prospects of either amendment passing (in the lower chamber) are slim”, the source said.

The European Council president told the European Parliament that in the Brexit talks “a no deal scenario would be bad for everyone but above all for the UK”.

Before the vote, SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh asked whether Brexit Secretary David Davis had “given consideration to a deportation process then” given the government’s “bad” track record on planning.

The announcement pushes to centre stage one of May’s biggest concerns about Brexit, the break-up of the United Kingdom, as she prepares to start negotiations with the other 27 European Union member states.

The lack of unity among United Kingdom officials heading into the negotiations and May’s ability to manage expectations while living up to her pledge that they’ll be “no running commentary” on the talks, round Fitch’s list of the five challenges for the United Kingdom.

At today’s Brexit select committee David Davis, the Tory secretary of state for exiting the European Union, said that there has been no investigation of what the economic implications of no deal would mean for Britain.

In an earlier referendum in 2014, Scotts had voted to remain part of the UK.

“Each date has different implications in terms of when it can be responded to by the Council (of European Union leaders)”, he said.

She urged people not to describe Brexit as a “divorce”, explaining: “Very often when people get divorced they don’t have a very good relationship afterwards”.