Rebels plan ambush on May to foil ‘Brexit Lite’

THERESA MAY is facing an ‘autumn ambush’ from Eurosceptic Tory MPs who fear that the UK is heading for ‘Brexit Lite’.

Sceptics plan to launch at least two cross-party groups to pressure the Prime Minister into announcing a strict timetable for leaving the European Union, amid unease among Tory Brexiteers that Mrs May has failed to set out a clear ‘road map’ to the UK’s eventual break.

But Ministers are trying to head off the protests by considering an early draft Brexit Bill which would formally repeal the country’s EU membership but only be imple- mented once final terms had been agreed. Sceptics have been alarmed by remarks from Chancellor Philip Hammond about the need to retain ‘access to’ the single market, fearing that it would restrict our ability to control freedom of movement and lead to a ‘Brexit Lite’ compromise. Others say they are worried that Mrs May’s Government appeared to be ‘more concerned with grammar schools’. One said last night: ‘There’s a deafening silence on detail related to the defining issue of her premiership – how we exit the EU. It’s almost as though the referendum never happened.’

Mrs May has already declared she will not invoke Article 50, the formal trigger to start the move towards exit, this year. But sources have confirmed Ministers are considering starting the process with an early repeal of the 1972 European Communities Act – which took us into Europe. This could be quickly tabled in the Commons to placate Brexit-supporting Tories but enacted only once our exit terms were settled.

Ex Tory Cabinet Minister John Redwood is understood to have already had discussions with civil servants who will form the nucleus of the new Brexit department.

Sources say that anti-EU Labour MP Gisela Stuart has been lined up to chair one cross-party group designed to co-ordinate pro-leave efforts.