May survives no confidence vote, calls on MPs to unite over Brexit
Labour's Corbyn rejects offer to meet until no-deal taken off table
DUP, rebels fall into line to support government after snubbing plan
UK Prime Minister Theresa May won a confidence vote on Wednesday night by 325 votes to 305 as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn failed in his bid to force an election.
The motion was tabled after May's humiliating defeat in the Commons on Tuesday when her Brexit withdrawal deal was rejected by the biggest margin in UK parliamentary history.
Speaking after the vote May said she would start meeting party leaders immediately to find a way through the Brexit impasse, although Corbyn rejected the offer unless the prospect of a no-deal departure was ruled out.
In a statement outside Downing Street later on Wednesday night May said she was disappointed Corbyn would not meet her but stressed that "the door remains open". She had already met with Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, and the Westminster leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru.
“From tomorrow meetings will be taking place between senior government representatives, including myself, and groups of MPs that represent the widest possible selection of views from across parliament,” she said.
Corbyn said the government "must remove, clearly and once and for all, the prospect of the catastrophe of no deal and all the chaos that would come as a result of that and I invite the prime minister to confirm now that the government will not countenance a no deal Brexit from the European Union".
Later, his spokesman said: "That deal is dead. No number of tweaks or sweeteners from Brussels are going to change that. That is absolutely clear. If there is going to be a deal that is going to work for the country and have a majority in Parliament, Theresa May is going to have to abandon her red lines."
There were few signs that May was prepared to shift position on her red lines, including freedom of movement and leaving the customs union.
“The principles that govern us as we go into these talks is that we want to be able to do our own trade deals, and that is incompatible with a customs union,” a spokesman for the prime minister said.
Corbyn had always faced an uphill task in trying to unseat May. Her own rebels and the 10 Democratic Unionist MPs, the same people who humiliated her less than 24 hours ago, pledged loyalty, making a defeat unlikely.
BARNIER WARNING
Earlier in the day the EU said there could be no renegotiation of the withdrawal; agreement, particularly the Irish backstop arrangement.
The contentious backstop arrangement is an insurance policy to avoid a hard border with Ireland if no trade deal is reached with the EU. If triggered, it would force the UK into a customs union, the notion of which send Brexiteers into apoplexy.
Speculation was growing in Brussels and London that there could be a delay to Article 50, the mechanism under which the UK would leave the 28-member bloc.
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier insisted the deal rejected by British MPs was “the best possible compromise”.
"The agreement that we reached with the British government is a good agreement,” he added.
Barnier said Tuesday's comprehensive rejection of May's deal provided no guidance on what the UK wanted to happen next.
“This vote is not a clear manifestation of a positive majority which would define an alternative project,” Barnier said.
“It is up to the British authorities today or tomorrow to assess the outcome of this vote and up to the British Government to indicate how we are going to take things forward on March 29 to an orderly withdrawal.”