This week's passage of the EU Withdrawal Bill has set the conditions for a future Conservative government to deliver a "clean Brexit", even if Theresa May does not achieve that in negotiations with Brussels over the coming months, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.

The arch-eurosceptic said the danger of a Brexit in Name Only - in which the UK leaves the EU but remains subject to the rules of the single market or customs union - has been "significantly reduced" by the successful delivery of the bill.

Parliament's approval of the bill, after more than 270 hours of debate, came just days ahead of the second anniversary of the 2016 EU referendum on Saturday.

Speaking on the eve of the anniversary, Mr Rees-Mogg said he did not look on June 23 as the UK's independence day, "because I don't think we're that sort of country".

But he believes it will be remembered as a moment of change in British history as big as the Great Reform Act of 1832, victory at Waterloo in 1815 or the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

And he said only the repeal of the Withdrawal Bill - "an extraordinarily difficult thing to do" - could now prevent the UK leaving on March 29, 2019.

He dismissed as "absurd" suggestions a further referendum should be held to secure the electorate's support for an eventual deal.

Mr Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of Tory eurosceptics, said the chances of a bad deal which left Britain in a "semi-vassal" state were now low, in part because Mrs May would be unable to secure a majority in the Commons for such an arrangement.