Brexit vote result - LIVE: Cabinet ministers rebel as Theresa May's bid to keep no-deal Brexit on the table ends in yet another humiliating defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has suffered a humiliating defeat after MPs voted to completely take the option of a no-deal Brexit off the table.
MPs voted by 312 votes to 308 in favour of an amendment that was stronger than the government's own motion in its opposition to a no-deal outcome.
Ms May's motion said the Commons "declines to approve" leaving without a deal on March 29, but said the only way to avoid this is to pass an agreement. The amendment passed by MPs removed this caveat and simply said the Commons "rejects" a no-deal Brexit.
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Earlier, chancellor Philip Hammond used his Spring Statement to downgrade growth forecasts and warn MPs that uncertainty over Brexit was damaging the economy.
It came after ministers revealed plans to scrap tariffs in the event of the UK crashing out of the European Union without a deal as MPs prepare to vote on a no-deal Brexit.
Under a temporary and unilateral regime, EU goods arriving from the Republic of Ireland and remaining in Northern Ireland will not be subject to tariffs – a prospect likely to increase the risk UK jobs would be lost. Charges will however be payable on goods moving from the EU into the rest of the UK via Northern Ireland under a schedule of rates also released today.
Environment secretary Michael Gove is now opening the debate on no deal - just hours before MPs vote on the scenario. He starts off with a somewhat gushing tribute to the prime minister who "always puts country first".
"She has throughout this process shown fortitude, tenacity, thoughtfulness, diligence and above all an unselfish and unstinting patriotism."
Due to a sore throat which is causing her problems with her voice, Theresa May has not opened the debate as planned.
The environment secretary confirms that the prime minister's motion does not take no deal off the table - as the default position, in law, as it stands is to leave the European Union on 29 March.
Anna Soubry - the new Independent Group MP and ex Conservative - says this admission means MPs are not being given what they asked for.
On a no-deal scenario, Gove adds the country would "endure" and pays tribute to civil servants working around the clock to prepare for such a situation.
During the debate, Gove warns there could be a real risk of "direct rule" for Northern Ireland under a no-deal scenario - considering there has been no functioning executive in the country for the last two years.
Gove claims the agreement put before the House last night was "significantly" different from the one in January - a remark that triggers a fair amount of laughter in the chamber.
Sir Keir Starmer - the shadow Brexit secretary - is now responding to Gove. He says it is a serious debate, and one that is long overdue.
He adds he wanted to see the "mantra of my deal or no deal... dead and buried" in the vote later this evening.
He said: "On this side of the House we have never accepted there should be a binary choice between the Prime Minister's deal or no deal. Between very bad or even worse is not a meaningful choice and it would be a very sorry end to the negotiations.
"Yesterday the House overwhelmingly voted to reject the first of those options, the Prime Minister's deal. Today we have the chance to reject the second and we should do so with as big a majority as possible.
"The mantra of 'my deal or no deal' needs to be dead and buried tonight."
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Tory former minister Dame Caroline Spelman told MPs she will be withdrawing her amendment, which calls to reject leaving without a deal in any circumstance.
She says a no-deal scenario would be disastrous for the economy, but now "more so than ever before we face the real possibility of leaving without a deal by accident".
"I am pleased the PM has brought forward a motion to rule out leaving without a deal," she says adding that she believes Ms May's deal will bring about a bigger majority than her own amendment.
But the speaker John Bercow says she can't withdraw her amendment and it hasn't been moved, and it is now in the hands of the House of Commons. He makes clear that other signatories can move the amendment later this evening.
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