MPs anticipated to reject Lords' amendments to Brexit Bill

UK parliamentarians are expected to reject the two House of Lords amendments to the so-called Brexit Bill later on Monday.

The bill will bounce to-and-fro between the Upper and Lower chambers until both agree on its wording.

Parliamentarians are anticipated to reject the proposed amendments, according to various reports. Lords will then have to decide whether or not they wish to stand once more against May's plans again.

However, if the formally styled EU Withdrawal Bill completed its final stages and passed into legislation on Monday, May would potentially be able to trigger Article 50 as early as Tuesday.

That would begin up to two years of exit negotiations with the EU.

It may be that parliament sits through the night. Time has also been allocated on both Tuesday and Wednesday for the debate to take place. The bill would then require Royal Assent before being passed into legislation.

Lords' two amendments included seeking a "meaningful vote" for parliament on UK's quitting the EU, and guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens in the UK.

The government has previously said parliament would get a vote, and identified settling the status of EU nationals as a priority in its exit negotiations with the bloc.

Meantime, Scotland should hold another independence referendum between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday, and she will begin the process to hold the poll next week.

With May expected to kick-start the EU exit process later this week or in the following days, Sturgeon said the Scottish people needed to be given the choice before the end of the process.

She said she would ask the Scottish parliament to vote in favour of holding another referendum next week, with the details of the referendum, including the timing, an issue for Scotland to decide rather than Westminster.

She said the independence vote should take place between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of 2019.