But PM leaves door open to putting back quit date

BRITAIN’S exit from the EU will only be delayed in ‘exceptional circumstances’, Theresa May said yesterday.

The Prime Minister had planned to enshrine the Brexit date in law as March 29, 2019. But she was forced to back down yesterday after proRemain Tories threatened to inflict a second Commons defeat on the flagship EU Withdrawal Bill.

Rebel ringleader Dominic Grieve had warned that there were ‘no circumstances’ in which he and other rebel MPs would back an inflexible exit date.

The Government backed a ‘compromise’ put forward by former minister Sir Oliver Letwin, which will keep the date in legislation but allow ministers flexibility to change it.

Mrs May was challenged over the climbdown by Eurosceptic MPs. Julian Lewis asked her for assurances that the power to delay Brexit ‘will be invoked only in extremely exceptional circumstances, if at all, and only for a very short period’.

Mrs May told the Commons: ‘We are very clear that we will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 at 11pm. If that power were to be used, it would be only in extremely exceptional circumstances and for the shortest possible time. We are not talking about extensions.’