Lords pass landmark Brexit bill

That would leave Prime Minister Theresa May free to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s key treaty – the trigger for two years of exit negotiations – by March 31, as planned.

Another amendment would prevent private providers from entering the sector unless they had passed through four years of validation by a university or had been approved by a quality body. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a referendum on independence within two years to stop Scotland being dragged out of the European Union against its will.

The British people voted in the Brexit referendum past year to leave the European Union.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “The amendments matter because, for the first time, parliamentarians are winning battles on things [universities minister] Jo Johnson really cares about – like the TEF and probationary degree awarding powers”. Still, her government might well grant permission for a second Scottish vote on secession, because saying no would make Britain look like exactly the sort of tyrant Scotland should try to get away from.

Sturgeon said she wanted the referendum to take place between late 2018 and early 2019, before Brexit negotiations are completed.

He said: “If the United Kingdom government does not use its powers to give European Union nationals the certainty they deserve then immigration powers should be devolved to Scotland to allow an immigration policy that works for our economy, for our jobs market, for our key sectors and for Scotland”.

The UK government must agree to a new Scottish vote.

Pressed on the issue on Monday, a Downing Street spokesman said that Mrs May “shared [the ministers’] view that a bad deal would be worse than no deal”. “Nobody can be sure who would win”, he told CNN.

“One of the reasons we don’t talk about the contingency plan too much is we don’t want people to think this is what we are trying to do”.

But polls suggest there are more than enough undecided voters to swing the results either way.

The second tries to stop the government from agreeing any Brexit deal with the European Union, or from leaving with no deal, without the approval of parliament.

The EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill has now been passed back to the parliament’s upper chamber for considerations. She plans to announce the formal start of Brexit in the final week of March, according to two officials familiar with her plans.

Peers have already voted in the House of Lords on the Labour-backed bill to give Parliament the right to veto the Brexit agreement.

“We’ve chosen a different path and we wish them well”, a British government source said on Wednesday when asked whether May will be invited.

Ministers may also want the dust to settle on Sturgeon’s referendum call. Davis “briefed the cabinet last month on the need to prepare not just for a negotiated settlement, but for the unlikely scenario in which no mutually satisfactory agreement can be reached”, it said.

And he said he hoped that a guarantee of their future rights would be confirmed in an exchange of letters in advance of the completion of the final deal, in order to end uncertainty for foreign nationals as quickly as possible.