Theresa May will meet pro-EU rebels ahead of crunch vote as ministers hint they’ll drop attempt to write the date of Brexit into law

THERESA MAY faces an eve of Budget head-to-head with her pro-EU Tory MPs next Tuesday on a crunch EU Withdrawal Bill.

Mrs May will face down her rebels for the first time as Justice Secretary David Lidington hinted the Government could CAVE on controversial plans to enshrine Brexit Day into law.

The night before Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his make or break Budget, Mrs May faces her first Withdrawal Bill Commons defeat.

A cross-party backed amendment to the bill tabled by ex-Cabinet ministers Dominic Grieve, Ken Clarke and Nicky Morgan currently has the backing of at least ten Tory MPs and all the opposition parties.

The change to the law would see Britain remain a signatory of EU Charter of Fundamental Rights after leaving the bloc.

It will be debated next Tuesday as part of the third day of scrutiny of Mrs May’s controversial law to bring all of EU law onto British books when the UK leaves.

It comes on top of another potential flash point for the PM - pencilled in for December - over Mrs May’s plan to make leaving the EU on March 29, 2019 law.

Today the Justice Secretary hinted the plan could be abandoned after it was opposed by nearly 20 Tory MPs - more than enough to wipe out Mrs May’s wafer thin Commons majority.

Mr Lidington said No10 were “listening to concerns” but Mrs May’s spokesman insisted it was still her plan to ram the amendment into law.

Speaking to a Westminster lunch, he said there remain “differences of view and perspective” within the Cabinet over Brexit, but insisted that everyone around the table knows that they need to show they are united behind the strategy set out by the PM.

And the Lord Chancellor, who backed Remain last year, said he would not back a second referendum, arguing the Government must honour the commitment given to voters that their decision in the 2016 vote would be final.