Government defeat in Brexit vote

Theresa May has suffered a fresh defeat in a vote in the Commons on her approach to Brexit strategy by 303 to 258.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on the prime minister after the debate ended to "admit her Brexit strategy has failed".

Tory Brexiteer rebels abstained, saying the government's motion implied a no-deal Brexit would be ruled out when it came to negotiations with the EU.

Ministers said that was not the case but defeat would make life more difficult for the PM as she discussed the future of her deal with the EU.

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Five Conservative MPs demonstrated that they do not back the government's current Brexit strategy this evening by voting against the government's main Brexit motion.

Peter Bone, Sir Christopher Chope, Anne Marie Morris, Sarah Wollaston and Philip Hollobone all rebelled against the government, with 66 further Conservative MPs abstaining from the vote.

The DUP voted with the government, while four Labour MPs rebelled and a further four abstained.

The government was defeated on the main Brexit motion by 303 votes to 258, a majority of 45.

In the earlier vote on the SNP's amendment which sought to postpone the Brexit date by at least three months, two Conservative MPs, Ken Clarke and Sarah Wollaston, defied the government and voted to extend Article 50.

A further nine Conservative MPs abstained from voting on this amendment.

The SNP's amendment was defeated by 315 votes to 93, a government majority of 222.

Conservative MP and ERG member Steve Baker says the ERG abstained to say they "won't be made to support taking no-deal off the table".

"We did the best we could and abstained," he says, noting that a number of members wanted to vote against but were persuaded to do otherwise.

Mr Baker says the vote shows that the only majority in the Commons is for a deal without the backstop, and that the way forward is the Malthouse Compromise idea.

Members of Parliament are currently not facing up to the consequences of what they have legislated for, Mr Baker says, suggesting that they should "grow up" and accept Brexit.

HoCCopyright: HoC

Labour's Alison McGovern urges the government to "stop this chaos" and to "stop the clock" and to work across Parliament on Brexit.

She says nobody "is really trusting the Tories that much" on Brexit, and the European Research Group "couldn't even agree amongst themselves" on the motion, so they ended up abstaining.

If it were any other situation, she says, she thinks it would be necessary to call a general election.

"People have got jobs to do, businesses to plan for," she says, warning that this is being put "in jeopardy" by the current deadlock.

She says a second vote may be the only way to solve the "deadlock".

Downing Street has responded to the defeat tonight:

“Jeremy Corbyn yet again put partisan considerations ahead of the national interest – and yet again, by voting against the government’s motion, he is in effect voting to make no deal more likely.

“While we didn’t secure the support of the Commons this evening, the prime minister continues to believe, and the debate itself indicated, that far from objecting to securing changes to the backstop that will allow us to leave with a deal, there was a concern from some Conservative colleagues about taking no deal off the table at this stage.

“The motion on 29th January remains the only one the House of Commons has passed expressing what it does want – and that is legally binding changes to address concerns about the backstop. The government will continue to pursue this with the EU to ensure we leave on time on 29th March.”

Conservative Anna Soubry, who agreed to withdraw her amendment earlier, says she is "delighted" to have obtained a concession from ministers to publish the documents she asked for.

The Remain-supporting MP says that there is a lack of leadership throughout government, and in the Labour party.

Avoiding no-deal is what is driving people like me, she says, adding that the deadlock in Parliament is "not acceptable any longer".

But she says she would be happy to vote for Theresa May's deal if it were approved by voters.

The SNP's Ian Blackford says the result tonight is a "significant defeat for the government".

He says the prime minister "should be here to accept her responsibilities on the back of this government defeat", asking: "where is she?"

Lib Dem Tom Brake asks what MPs can do to ensure the government is listening to what Parliament is saying.

Mr Bercow says "it is certainly beyond the Speaker's power".