Theresa May has backed away from her widely expected timetable to start exit talks with the European Union.

Downing Street denied that the move was related to Nicola Sturgeon's announcement on a second independence referendum.

But No 10 indicated that Mrs May would not press ahead almost immediately and instead would wait until the end of this month.

The shift came just hours before the Prime Minister's Brexit Bill cleared its final parliamentary hurdle, allowing ministers to enter into negotiations with Brussels about the terms of the UK's divorce from the EU.

Ministers have to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start the official two year process of withdrawal from the EU.

Doing so within hours of the historic parliamentary vote risked a clash with a general election in the Netherlands, where EU membership is a key electoral battleground.

EU leaders are also expected to meet in Rome on March 25 to mark the 60th anniversary of the organisation.

Many of them had expected the Prime Minister to make an announcement this week and were due to meet on April 6 to prepare their response.

That event will now be delayed until later next month.

The timing emerged as Mrs May's government was accused of an "obsession" with control that would lead to a worse divorce settlement with the EU.

The row erupted after the Brexit Secretary David Davis urged MPs to throw out amendments to the Brexit Bill.

These called for EU citizens to be allowed to stay in the UK after Brexit and for MPs to get a ‘meaningful’ vote on the final deal with Brussels.

Mr Davis hit out at the House of Lords for amending the Bill, which had passed through the Commons untouched.

He attempted to reassure MPs that he felt a "moral responsibility" towards the three million EU nationals living in the UK.

But he offered no climbdown on the issue or on the question of a final vote on the exit deal with the EU.

Instead, he suggested that such a concession could encourage other EU countries to believe the Brexit decision could be reversed.

He also accused some MPs of trying to use the amendments to “overturn” the result of the EU referendum.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said that a parliamentary vote would be “a check against the prime minister deciding to take this country down the most dangerous path”.

He accused ministers of an "obsession" with getting the historic Bill through parliament unamended, despite the potential pitfalls.

Mr Davis also faced harsh criticism from MPs on his own benches.

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve warned that leaving the EU with no trade deal and no vote among MPs would be “deranged”.

"Somebody has got to put down a marker that we have to follow a proper process in the way in which we carry out Brexit," he said.

Former deputy prime minister Mr Clegg warned that the UK could require ID cards to identify which EU nationals arrived in Britain before, or after, the Brexit vote.

He told MPs: "There is no earthly way that this Government can separate the three million EU citizens which are already here from the millions who may, after a certain cut-off date, want to come and live and study and work here in the future without creating a mountainous volume of red tape."

The Lib Dem Europe spokesman also accused ministers of "procedural machismo" in their attempt to push the Bill through Parliament.