Humiliating night for Prime Minister Theresa May as MPs reject no-deal Brexit

Theresa May suffered a further two humiliating defeats in the space of half-an-hour in votes on her Brexit plans.

By The Newsroom

Published 13th Mar 2019, 19:25 BST

Updated 13th Mar 2019, 19:28 BST

Prime Minister Theresa May. Picture: John Stillwell/PA Wire

With just 16 days to go until the United Kingdom was due to leave the European Union, MPs voted to reject leaving without a withdrawal agreement.

The government’s original motion only ruled out leaving without a deal on March 29 – but an amendement put forward by Labour’s Yvette Cooper was approved by 312 to 308.

The then amended motion, ruling out leaving the EU with no deal, was then approved by 321 to 278 – a majority of 43.

None of the votes are legally-binding decision and it does not rule out the UK leaving the EU but a number Tory ministers rebelled against the whip to vote for the amendment.

A further vote will be held tomorrow on whether to extend Article 50 to allow a deal to be passed in the government.