Brexit law ‘gimmick’

THERESA May’s plan to write the date of the UK’s separation from the European Union into law has been dismissed as a “gimmick” and led to fresh warnings it could provoke a Tory revolt as MPs debated the Brexit legislation.

Mrs May wants 11pm GMT on March 29, 2019 enshrined in law as the point that the UK breaks away. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Government’s bid to write the date of withdrawal into the law was a “desperate gimmick”.