May slumps to crushing 303 to 258 Brexit defeat at hands of Tory rebels despite begging them not to weaken her hand with Brussels – and doesn’t even turn up to hear grim result of vote
Theresa May was driven away from Parliament tonight in the wake of the disastrous vote
Theresa May suffered another Brexit humiliation tonight as she was brutally savaged by Tory MPs from both wings of her party.
The PM had tabled an apparently bland motion that was designed to give her a mandate to push on with her plan to return to the EU and get more concessions on the Irish border backstop.
But it was interpreted in wildly different ways by the warring factions in Parliament, and Mrs May crashed to defeat by a huge margin of 303 to 258.
Furious Eurosceptics abstained claiming she was sneakily trying to take no deal off the table.
As any hopes of a Tory love-in for Valentine’s Day were shattered, Remainers also snubbed her for the opposite reason, that she was not dismissing the idea of crashing out.
In total 66 Tories went missing for the showdown, while five actively opposed her.
Summing up the pincer movement Mrs May found herself caught in, both arch-Brexiteer Boris Johnson and his pro-EU brother Jo abstained.
Mrs May did not even bother to enter the chamber to hear the grim result, with Jeremy Corbyn demanding to know where she was and taunting that she ‘can’t keep running the clock down’.
The blow came despite Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay desperately trying to reassure mutinous MPs that no deal is not being taken off the table – and warning that Brussels will conclude the UK’s ‘resolve is weakening’.
But his tough words only served further to infuriate Remainers.
The defeat has no binding effect on the government, but plunges her deeper into chaos and could persuade the EU there is no point offering any more concessions on the Irish border backstop.
Amid signs that Downing Street was already engaged in damage limitation this afternoon, Mrs May was notably absent from the start of the debate.
And although she was in the House to vote this evening, she was nowhere to be seen in the chamber. Video playing bottom right…Click here to expand to full page
