Theresa May defers ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit deal

Prime Minister Theresa May is to travel to Europe to seek concessions on her Brexit deal, after calling off a crunch House of Commons vote in which she was expected to go down to a heavy defeat.

In a statement to MPs, Mrs May also said the Government was stepping up preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit.

And she said that MPs who were threatening to vote against the deal she secured with Brussels must ask themselves the fundamental question: "Does this House want to deliver Brexit?"

If the answer was yes, she said that they needed to consider whether they were prepared to make "compromises" in order to make good on the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU.

Mrs May's statement came amid dramatic scenes at Westminster, as news of her plan to postpone Tuesday's "meaningful vote" broke just minutes after Downing Street had insisted it was going ahead.

It is understood that the PM had been warned that she faced a large-scale defeat when MPs voted at the end of five days of debate in the Commons on her plans.

She spoke with her Cabinet colleagues by a telephone conference call before addressing the Commons.