Brexit vote result - LIVE : Theresa May offers Tory MPs free vote on no deal after her revised plan suffers second crushing defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.MPs have inflicted a devastating defeat on Theresa May's Brexit deal after last-minute assurances from the EU failed to convince Brexiteers and the DUP.
On a day of high drama in Westminster, parliament voted against the prime minister's blueprint by 149 votes.
Ahead of the Commons showdown, a hoarse Ms May desperately appealed to MPs to back her blueprint after she secured “legally binding” changes during an eleventh-hour trip to Strasbourg on Monday night.
But attorney general Geoffrey Cox dealt a significant blow to her efforts, issuing legal advice that said the UK could still be trapped in the Irish backstop, which is so despised by Tory Brexiteers.
The prime minister must now let MPs decide whether to rule out a no-deal Brexit and has been forced to allow her ministers to vote.
It means over the next 48 hours cross-party groups of MPs will probably table plans for delaying Brexit for different periods; for leaving on different terms; and for giving the British public a Final Say referendum.
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Speaking to reporters outside the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs in Westminster, the prime minister - when asked if she had secured enough support, appeared to say "sufficient".
Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd said she believed the Prime Minister's deal would go through tonight.
She said: "Some people are not yet convinced but they're clearly considering it.
"We have to think about this politically... what the consequences are for the country if we don't get this through.
"I think she's going to win tonight, I think we're all going to win... otherwise instability will follow which would be so unwelcome."
Attorney general Geoffrey Cox is now addressing MPs in the Commons - after he published his legal opinion on the prime minister's "improved deal".
His advice made clear that the UK can still be trapped in the backstop.
In the Commons, he says it is in the interests of both the UK, and the EU to agree a future deal as soon as possible.
Crucially, he says his legal opinion remains unchanged on the backstop.
“The legal risk, as I set it out in my letter of the 13th of November, remains unchanged."
He says that MPs should now make a "political" judgement on the concessions secured by Ms May in Strasbourg last night.
"The question for the House is whether in the light of these improvements, as a political judgment, the House should now enter into those arrangements."
Senior Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett, a leading supporter of the People's Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: "The PM promised MPs that she would secure changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, but she has failed to deliver.
"Instead she offered parliament several pieces of paper which she claims would secure a route out of the backstop and allow her government to walk away if trade negotiations dragged on.
"The expert legal opinion - even from her own attorney general - could hardly be clearer: she has not secured any substantial change in the material position.
"We have heard a lot from Brexiteer MPs about their demands and their principles. The question they will now have to answer is whether they meant what they have been saying?
"There is no real majority in the House of Commons or in the country for a Brexit deal that is a million miles away from what was promised in the last referendum. Now we know new facts about the real costs of Brexit, people deserve a new vote and a real say. It's time to put it to the people."
Conservative MP Damian Collins tweeted: "The Attorney General's advice is clear. Nothing has changed. We would still not have the power to independently leave the backstop arrangements and the process could go on indefinitely. This
is why I won't be voting for the withdrawal agreement as it stands."
The European Research Group of Brexiteer MP - crucial for May's deal passing - has just said their own legal advice on latest concessions do not pass the required test.
Brexiteer MP Bill Cash, who is a member of the ERG, says: "In the light of our own legal analysis and others we do not recommend accepting the gov motion today".
Speaking in the Commons, the DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said: "Would he agree that in relation to the reduction in risk of being held in the backstop in relation to the EU acting in bad faith or want of best endeavours, does he agree with his previous advice of paragraph 29 that all the EU would have to show good faith will be to consider the UK's proposals - even if they ultimately reject them - this could go on repeatedly without such conduct giving rise to bad faith or failure?
"And on the point about if it isn't a question of bad faith but if it's just a question that the two sides can't reach agreement, he is saying in paragraph 19 that his legal opinion is the legal risk remains unchanged.
"We know already from the Irish government and others what they see as the ultimate destination for Northern Ireland - the backstop is the bottom line.
"From what the attorney general is saying today, provided there is no bad faith, the fact is that Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom could be trapped if it's a question that the EU does not agree with the United Kingdom to a superseding agreement."
Tory MP and vice-chair of the 1922 committee Charles Walker tells BBC: "If it [Brexit deal] doesn't go through tonight, as sure as night follows day, there will be a general election within a matter of days or weeks.
"It is not sustainable, the current situation in Parliament."
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