Brexit vote: MPs vote by 308-297 to defeat Theresa May and accept Grieve amendment

Barry Gardiner, Labour’s international trade spokesman, suggested Jeremy Corbyn would table a vote of no confidence in the government “immediately” after the expected defeat for the deal next Tuesday, in an attempt to force a general election.

“The next thing to do, immediately after that, is for there to be a vote of no confidence in the government,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“The appropriate time to table a vote of no confidence in the government is when the government loses its key legislation and no longer commands a majority in the House of Commons.”

Mr Gardiner said the “country should be demanding a general election”, arguing that would happen “in any other country around the world”.

Theresa May today faces the prospect of a fresh threat to her Brexit plans (yes, another) as MPs launch a bid to force her to reveal her plan B within just days if she loses the critical vote the deal next Tuesday.

Under the current plan, if Ms May's deal is defeated in the Commons, the prime minister has 21 days, plus seven sitting days, to return to the chamber and offer MPs an alternative, or another vote. 

But the amendment to the business motion launched by cross-party MPs makes clear she will be required to return within three days of losing the vote. The MPs claim the "situation is too urgent" to potentially wait until 12 February for the next step.

It is not yet clear whether the speaker, John Bercow, will select the amendment for MPs to vote on later today, but we will know for sure later in the afternoon. 

It follows a humiliating defeat for Ms May less than 24 hours ago, as rebel MPs won a vote making it harder for ministers to force through a no-deal Brexit. Significantly, her government became the first since 1978 to be defeated on a Finance Bill.

Former Tory Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell has described May's Brexit deal as "humiliating" and said he would not vote for it as it stands.

He told the Today programme the deal would "enshrine all those divisions which have caused such trouble in Britain", adding: "It will perpetuate all the divisionism which has led us to where we are today."

It doesn't appear the DUP will be swinging around to save the prime minister before next week's crucial vote on the Brexit deal. 

Speaking on Sky News, the DUP's Brexit spokesperson, Sammy Wilson, said: "The only deal that could swing the DUP round is if the backstop as it applies to the UK as a whole or to Northern Ireland specifically were removed from this agreement."

He added: "Constitutionally and economically if this deal went through it would be ruinous and indeed would do what the IRA failed to do over 40 years of a terrorist campaign."

Senior Conservative MP Nick Boles has told the BBC that he has received his "first death threat" after he was one of over a dozen Tories to vote against the government in the Finance Bill on Tuesday evening in a move to signal opposition against a no-deal Brexit. 

Labour's shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has said the party will back the amendment which attempts to force the PM to come to parliament much earlier than expected should she lose the vote next week.