Peers vote to remove exit date from flagship Brexit Bill

PEERS have voted to remove the date Britain leaves the EU from the Government’s flagship withdrawal legislation.

The Government had defined the point of Brexit as 11pm on March 29, 2019 in its European Union (With- drawal) Bill. But peers voted 311 to 233, a majority of 78, to remove the date in what was the Government’s 12th defeat in the Lords on Brexit.

The deletion bid was led by the Duke of Wellington, who said he was trying to help and not “thwart the process”.

Peers had likened the formal Brexit date to a “straitjacket”. But Lord Callanan, a Brexit minister, insisted he saw “no reason” to delete the date as it might affect “whether we leave the EU in a smooth and orderly fashion”.

The Government later suffered its 14th defeat in total, as peers backed retaining key aspects of the single market by continued participation in the European Economic Area by 245 to 218.