Westminster – as it happened: Government defeated over plan to enshrine date of Brexit in law
All the latest updates from Westminster, as they happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Peers have dealt a fresh blow to Theresa May’s Brexit strategy by voting to remove the official exit date from her flagship EU legislation.
The government suffered two defeats on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill in the Lords - taking its tally to 12 losses - and it faced a further threat on Tuesday night as cross-party peers were due to push a vote to effectively keep Britain in the single market.
It comes as the prime minister was forced to insist she had full confidence in Boris Johnson, after the foreign secretary launched a public assault on her proposals for a customs partnership after Brexit.
In a major intervention, Mr Johnson said the proposals favoured by the Prime Minister were "crazy" and would create a “whole new web of bureaucracy”.
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On his Twitter page, the Brexiteer Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, has just posted: "Boris hits the nail on the head."
Next to his remarks is a link to a Daily Mail article, under the headline: "Boris Johnson savages Downing Street's post-Brexit trade plans."
The Labour MP Heidi Alexander has quit as a Labour MP, to join the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, as his deputy for transport.
She told the Guardian: “London is a fantastic city. I know Sadiq wants its transport system to be the envy of the world and I am looking forward to playing my part in making that happen.”
One candidate, Sakina Sheikh, has already thrown her hat in the ring to replace Heidi Alexander as the MP for Lewisham.
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