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Theresa May faces another Brexit Bill showdown after refusing to accept calls for a “meaningful vote” on the final deal.

Ministers are thought to be standing firm against a plea by Tory rebels including Dominic Grieve, Ken Clarke and Anna Soubry.

The rebels’ amendment 7, set to face a crunch vote tomorrow, would ban ministers from putting the exit deal in law until MPs approve it in a full Act of Parliament.

MPs will get a vote on a separate ‘Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill’ which enacts parts of the deal including citizens’ rights, the transition and divorce bill.

But this falls short of the rebel amendment - because by then ministers could already be using ‘Henry VIII’ powers to enact other parts of the deal.

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In a double showdown tomorrow, MPs are also set to vote on setting the date of Brexit in law at 29 March 2019 - a move Mr Grieve has branded “idiotic”.

Jeremy Corbyn on Monday said Mrs May must “consider dropping the unnecessary exit date deadline”.

It comes after Theresa May made an embarrassing Brexit climbdown by ditching plans to give ministers sweeping powers to change laws without the approval of parliament.

The so-called Henry VIII powers have been dropped in favour of a special “sifting committee” to scrutinise any proposed changes.

Several Tory MPs had voiced their concerns about the proposal and were planning to join forces with Labour and the SNP to wipe out May’s slender majority and defeat the Government .

Just 48 hours before the crunch vote, No10 said it was accepting the amendment in the name of Conservative backbencher Charles Walker.

May’s spokesman said: “We have said from the outset that we will look at the amendments and where we consider that improvements can be made to the legislation, we will respond to them.”

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

It comes as the European Parliament looked set to demand last week's Brexit deal is converted into a legally binding text as soon as possible.

The Parliament's chief Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said suggestions from David Davis that the agreement was not binding had undermined trust in the UK among MEPs.

In a TV interview on Sunday, Mr Davis appeared to suggest that the UK could seek to alter agreements on divorce issues including the Irish border, citizens' rights and the UK's £39 billion financial settlement, saying the deal was "much more a statement of intent than it was a legally enforceable thing".

After the Irish Government branded the comment "bizarre", the Brexit Secretary took to the airwaves once again on Monday, saying that Britain's commitment on the border issue was "much more than just legally enforceable".

The European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas later confirmed that the joint report published last week by Mr Davis and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was "not legally binding" until it is incorporated in a formal Article 50 Withdrawal Agreement, expected in the autumn of 2018.

But asked if it was therefore possible for either side to back down on it, Mr Schinas stressed that it was regarded in Brussels as "a deal between gentlemen" which was "fully backed and endorsed" by the UK Government. He noted that Prime Minister Theresa May and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had shaken hands on it.

Mr Verhofstadt suggested that MEPs would like to bring forward moves to make the agreement legally binding.

"Remarks by David Davis that Phase One deal last week not binding were unhelpful and undermine trust," he said in a tweet.

"European Parliament text will now reflect this and insist agreement translated into legal text ASAP."