Theresa May has pulled the vote on her Brexit deal just one day before is was scheduled to take place.
Speaking this afternoon, the Prime Minister confirmed she was delaying Tuesdays parliamentary vote in a humiliating U-turn.
In her speech, she acknowledged she would have lost the vote by a significant margin.
The announcement followed a government source revealing that the vote was being called off just moments after a Downing Street spokeswoman told Westminster reporters at a regular daily briefing that it would go ahead.
Mrs May was engaged in a conference call by telephone with her Cabinet ministers as the story broke this morning.
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There was no official confirmation initially from 10 Downing Street that the vote was being called off – however, Mrs May confirmed the cancellation this afternoon.
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She said: If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow the deal would be rejected by a significant margin.
We will therefore defer the vote schedule for tomorrow and not proceed to divide the house at this time.
Announcing the delay, May was laughed at by some lawmakers when she said there was broad support for the deal and that she had listened carefully to different views it.
She later added that the United Kingdom would step up planning for a no-deal Brexit.
May accepted there was concern among lawmakers about the Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy aimed at avoiding a return to border checks between the British province and Ireland that could threaten a 1998 peace accord.
Her critics, both supporters of Brexit and its opponents, have rejected the open-ended backstop, which could require Britain to accept European Union rules indefinitely, long after it gives up any say in drafting them.
She said the broader question was whether parliament wanted to deliver on the will of the people for Brexit, or open up the divisions in the worlds fifth largest economy with another referendum.
Speaking to Sky News, MP Nigel Dodds said: This tactic of pulling the vote has only happened because she was going to suffer a massive defeat.
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Ahead of the announcement, Mrs May also spoke by phone to Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, whose MPs prop up the minority Conservative administration but were threatening to vote against her deal.
Mrs Foster said: My message was clear. The backstop must go. Too much time has been wasted. Need a better deal. Disappointed it has taken so long for Prime Minister to listen.
The dramatic developments occurred as the European Court of Justice ruled that Britain can unilaterally halt the Brexit process by revoking the Article 50 letter declaring its intention to leave the EU.
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