BARNSTORMER GOVE

Labour bid to topple PM flops after impassioned intervention

French president Emmanuel Macron dismissed fresh concessions, telling the UK: ‘Figure it out yourself’;

Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney was caught on tape admitting his country will have to impose a hard border under No Deal;

Mr Corbyn came under pressure to commit Labour to a second referendum, with 71 of his own MPs coming out publicly for another vote;

Ministers warned privately the UK could face a general election within weeks;

A new poll last night found three quarters of voters believe Brexit has shown politicians are ‘not up to the job’.

After surviving the motion of no confidence in her Government, the Prime Minister last night made her offer to work with MPs from across the Commons to get a deal that works for the country.

She invited leaders of opposition parties to take part in individual meetings with her before she returns to the Commons on Monday to make a fresh statement on the way forward on Brexit. Mrs May pledged to approach the talks ‘in a constructive spirit’ and urged other parties to do the same, adding: ‘ We must find solutions that are negotiable and command sufficient support in this House.’ An angry Mr Corbyn responded: ‘Before there can be any positive discussions about the way forward, the Government must remove clearly once and for all the prospect of the catastrophe of a No-Deal Brexit from the EU and all the chaos that would come as a result of that.’

His spokesman added: ‘ No Deal must come off the table. It’s effectively a blackmail and makes meaningful talks on a real solution that can command a majority in Parliament impossible.’

But Labour MP Chris Leslie said: ‘ Every opportunity to influence Brexit policy ought to be taken – surely we should be taking the chance to see the Prime Minister, even if all we get is time to persuade her of the merits of a People’s Vote?’

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said it was ‘ extraordinary’ that the Labour leader had sought to ‘attach some conditionality’ to the offer.

Mrs May has pledged to update Parliament on Monday on her next steps and to publish a Commons motion setting out the way forward.

‘What he’s done is a national tragedy’

LABOUR’S attempt to topple Theresa May backfired last night following a barnstorming intervention by Michael Gove.

Jeremy Corbyn’s no-confidence motion was decisively defeated, despite it coming just a day after the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal was emphatically voted down by the Commons.

The Government won the confidence vote by 325 to 306, a majority of 19, thanks to the support of Northern Ireland unionists. Without the support of the DUP, she would have lost the vote by one – and would have faced the prospect of a general election.

Mrs May’s victory followed a powerful defence of her ‘inspirational leadership’ by Michael Gove.

Winding up the seven-hour debate on the motion, the Brexiteer Environment Secretary launched into a brutal condemnation of the Labour leader, who he said would put national security under threat.

When it came to security, Mr Gove mocked Mr Corbyn by saying he was ‘present but not involved’ – a reference to his excuse for visiting the graves of terror leaders linked to the Munich massacre.

‘While we are standing up for national security, what about Mr Corbyn?’ Mr Gove said. ‘He wants to leave Nato, he wants to get rid of our nuclear deterrent.

‘No allies, no deterrent, no army, no way can this country ever allow that man to be our Prime Minister.’

The Environment Secretary added: ‘If he won’t stand up against Putin or fascists in Syria, how can we expect him to stand up for us in European negotiations, for Gibraltar against Spain, or to ensure we get a good deal with the Commission? Of course he won’t.’

Ironically, his impassioned speech in defence of Mrs May is likely to be seen by some as an audition for the role of Tory leader, should it come up in the future.

Yesterday’s confidence vote was the first in the Commons since 1993 when John Major defeated the motion.

Labour had promised a string of confidence votes in the coming weeks in a bid to wear the Government down. And despite the defeat last night, the party did not rule tabling another motion on Monday after Mrs May lays out the way ahead for EU negotiations.

However, the Scottish and Welsh nationalists, whose support Mr Corbyn would need to defeat the Tories, warned him to come out in support of a second referendum rather than pushing for endless confidence votes with little or no chance of success.

Opening the debate earlier in the day, Mr Corbyn said: ‘If a government cannot get its legislation through Parliament it must go to the country for a new mandate, and that must apply when it is on the key issue of the day.’

He said the fixed-term parliaments act was ‘never intended to prop up a zombie government’, adding: ‘This Frankenstein deal is now officially dead and the Prime Minister is trying to blame everybody else.’

Mrs May rose to cheers and the stamping of feet from her backbenchers and told Mr Corbyn a general election would be ‘the worst thing we could do’.

She said: ‘It would deepen division when we need unity, it would bring chaos when we need certainty, and it would bring delay when we need to move forward. At this crucial moment in our nation’s history, a general election is simply not in the national interest.’

Attacking Mr Corbyn, she said: ‘What he has done to his party is a national tragedy, what he would do to the country would be a national calamity.’ Anna Soubry, the proRemain Tory MP who voted against the PM’s deal on Monday, turned her fire on the Labour leader, labelling him the ‘most hopeless Leader of the Opposition we’ve ever had’.

Ian Blackford, the Scottish Nationalists’ Westminster leader, said Labour had been shamed into tabling its confidence vote – and called on him to back a second ref

erendum. ‘I make this appeal to our friends and colleagues in the Labour Party – we have to work together to hold this Government to account, and if we are to do that, we have to recognise the harm that Brexit will do,’ he said.

‘If we want to protect the interests of our citizens, there has to be a people’s vote. We do not have time to delay.’ During the debate, Mr Corbyn faced the humiliation of being criticised by one of his former MPs for being ‘unfit for high office’.

John Woodcock, who now sits as an independent, said that ‘with a heavy heart’ he could not support the no-confidence motion.

He abstained along with fellow former Labour independent Ivan Lewis and former Labour whip Fiona Onasanya.

Winding up, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson made a devastating attack on the PM. He told her that her EU negotiations had ‘failed’, adding: ‘It’s not through lack of effort or determination. In fact the country feels genuinely sorry for the Prime Minister. I feel sorry for the Prime Minister.

‘But she cannot confuse pity with political legitimacy.’

Mr Gove replied: ‘We have several things in common … we both recognise that Mr Corbyn is about the worst possible person to lead the Labour Party.’ The DUP’s Westminster group leader Nigel Dodds said: ‘Last night’s verdict was emphatic and does require lessons to be learned if the Prime Minister is to secure meaningful changes to the Withdrawal Agreement.’

Last night a Labour spokesman said: ‘ The Government may be able to survive the no confidence vote today, but it is simply not able to govern.’