Theresa May has said that an amendment to the EU withdrawal bill allowing the government to change the date of Brexit will be used only in “extremely exceptional circumstances”.

May was pressed during PMQs on Wednesday by two strongly pro-Brexit Conservative MPs over the amendment, which ministers hope will avoid another defeat on the bill for the government later on Wednesday.

Other Tory MPs have expressed disquiet at a government amendment enshrining the date of Brexit as 29 March 2019, saying this is overly inflexible. The government appears set to accept a change to this amendment by another Conservative, Oliver Letwin, allowing the date to be changed.

Julian Lewis, the New Forest East MP, told May he was concerned at the Letwin plan.



“May I seek an assurance from the prime minister that its provisions to change the date of leaving the EU will be invoked only, if at all, under extremely exceptional circumstances, and only for a very short period?” he said.



May responded: “I am quite happy to give my honourable friend and others that reassurance. We’re very clear – we will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019, at 11pm. The bill that is going through does not determine that the UK leaves the EU – that’s part of the article 50 process, and is a matter of international law.”

The Letwin change would help ensure the UK had “the same position legally as the European Union” over Brexit, she said.

May added: “But I can assure my right honourable friend and the house: we would only use this power in exceptional circumstances, for the shortest possible time, and an affirmative motion would be brought to the house.”

Soon afterwards she was pressed on the same issue by John Baron, the Tory MP for Basildon and Billericay.

He asked: “If the power is used at all, could she assure the house it would only be used for a matter of weeks or months at the maximum, a couple of months and no longer? Because there is a concern that it could indefinitely extend our stay within the EU.”



May said: “I can assure my honourable friend that … if it were the case that this would be used, it would only be in extremely exceptional circumstances, and it would be for the shortest possible time.”

The exchange highlights the competing demands May faces over the EU withdrawal bill, which will complete the committee stage of the Commons late on Wednesday.

On the one side she has remain-minded MPs such as Dominic Grieve, whose amendment giving the Commons a final vote on any Brexit deal was passed last week, against the wishes of ministers, while on the other she has MPs such as Baron and Lewis, who worry May is granting too many concessions.

May’s exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn on the last PMQs of the year were dominated by questions on the NHS, which the Labour leader said “goes into this winter in crisis”.

After asking a series of questions about health and social care funding, Corbyn launched into a denunciation of May’s record, to cheers from his MPs. “Nurses and other workers – no pay rise for years. NHS targets not met for years. Staff shortages. GP numbers falling. The reality is mental health budgets have been cut, social care budgets have been cut, public health budgets cut,” he said.

“The prime minister today has shown just how out of touch she is. The truth is our NHS is being recklessly put at risk by her government. That is the truth.”

May, who said NHS funding had increased, replied with a prepared final diatribe over her own, seemingly intended to send her MPs off to Christmas in good spirits.

She mockingly began: “Not that long ago the right honourable gentleman was saying he would be prime minister by Christmas. Well, he was wrong. I am, and the Conservatives are in government.

“Not that long ago he said we wouldn’t deliver phase one of the Brexit negotiations. Well, he was wrong – we’ve made sufficient progress and we’re moving on to phase two of the Brexit negotiations. Not that long ago he was predicting that the budget would be a failure. In fact the budget was a success and it’s delivering more money for our National Health Service.

“Labour: wrong, wrong, wrong. Conservatives: in government, delivering on Brexit, a budget for homes and the health service.”