Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in Theresa May as Prime Minister on Monday after she attempted to quash support for a Final Say referendum in a statement to MPs.
Mr Corbyn tabled the motion after the prime minister gave the date for a Commons showdown on her Brexit deal as January 14, which she had already postponed at the eleventh-hour in the face of a catastrophic defeat.
Ahead of announcing the no confidence motion at the end of Ms May’s statement in the Commons, Mr Corbyn said she had “led the country into a national crisis", and lost the support of her own cabinet.
Later, No 10 said they would not table a vote on Mr Corbyn's no confidence motion, describing the move as playing "silly games".
See below for the day's developments
Workers are to be given new protections as part of a major overhaul of workplace rights announced by the government.
Dozens of changes will be made to employment rules in a move ministers heralded as the “largest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”.
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A third cabinet minister has called for MPs to be allowed to break the Brexit deadlock through a series of votes on the options, as pressure grows on Theresa May to give way.
Greg Clark, the business secretary, said the Commons should be “invited to say what it would agree with” if – as seems certain – the prime minister’s deal is defeated.
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Theresa May is due to give a Commons statement today at around 3.30pm, where MPs will be able to grill her over her trip to Brussels for the European Council summit on Thursday and Friday.
Expect a fairly fraught session, after Ms May's efforts to gain concessions were rebuffed. She was also captured on camera confronting Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission chief, after he described the British Brexit position as "nebulous and imprecise".
Significantly, the words briefed overnight by Downing Street show the PM attempting to quash the prospect of a second referendum.
She is expected to say: “Let us not break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum.
“Another vote which would do irreparable damage to the integrity our politics, because it would say to millions who trusted in democracy, that our democracy does not deliver.
“Another vote which would likely leave us no further forward than the last.
“And another vote which would further divide our country at the very moment we should be working to unite it.”
Independent MP Frank Field is planning to table a motion today to ask for a series of vote on different Brexit scenarios. While this motion is non-binding on the government, its a way of testing support among MPs for such a plan.
He said: "The public has a right to know how the House of Commons would vote on the different Brexit choices facing our country.
"I am trying to ensure we have an opportunity as soon as possible to register our vote on a range of options, including a reformed Northern Irish ‘backstop’, leaving the European Union without a deal, extending Article 50, entering into a future Norway- or Canada-style relationship with the EU, and holding a new referendum.
"The results of voting on each scenario wouldn’t be binding on the government.
"But they will test opinion to see if any way forward commands a majority amongst MPs. This could act as a powerful guide to the government during its ongoing discussions with the EU."
Theresa May's official spokesman has told a Westminster briefing that there were "no plans" to stage an indicative vote on a range of Brexit options, but he did not definitively rule the option out.
He said that all cabinet ministers who have spoken publicly on Brexit in recent days had made clear their commitment to getting the PM's deal through parliament.
Talks by officials were continuing "at all levels" to seek further clarification and assurances on the terms of the existing deal - and particularly the nature of the proposed backstop - as agreed at the European Council last week, he said.
The spokesman added: "The PM is very clear that we will not be holding a second referendum."
He told a press conference in Brussels: "The deal that is on the table is the best and the only deal possible - we will not reopen it, it will not be renegotiated.
"As President Tusk said, the European Council has given the clarifications that were possible at this stage, so no further meetings with the United Kingdom are foreseen.
"On the EU side we have started the process of ratification and we will follow closely the ratification process in the United Kingdom."
He added that talk of a second referendum was an "internal" matter for the UK and that the commission has "absolutely no comment on it".
There was an interesting piece of language from Downing Street on the idea of an “indicative vote” in the House of Commons, political editor Joe Watts writes.
Theresa May has gone out of her way to rule out a second referendum in recent days, and a yes/no vote on her proposed deal before Christmas.
But when questioned about the indicative-vote plan championed by some of her cabinet members, her spokesman would only say there are “no plans” for them – which can sometimes mean there might be in the future.
The proposal would see MPs given a multiple choice vote on what they think should happen – second referendum, Norway, no-deal or May’s deal.
The final option would be dropped if MPs were acting after May’s deal had already been rejected by the Commons of course.
Some in her cabinet see it as a route to second referendum, whilst others see it as a way of garnering support for the PM’s strategy. Number 10 might even see it as a way of showing how hopelessly divided the Commons is.
Either way, Downing Street was still adamant this morning that the prime minister could secure “extra assurances” from the EU to get her deal through the House of Commons in the new year.
They apparently missed the press conference over in Brussels around the same time where the Commission’s spokesman said: “The EU Council has given the clarifications that were possible at this stage so no further meetings with the UK are foreseen.”
Boris Johnson, the ex-foreign secretary and May's long-time rival, has described the prospect of a new public vote as a "betrayal".
Writing in the Telegraph, he said: “They [the public] would know immediately that they were being asked to vote again simply because they had failed to give the ‘right’ answer last time.
"They would suspect, with good grounds, that it was all a gigantic plot, engineered by politicians, to overturn their verdict.
"A second referendum would provoke instant, deep and ineradicable feelings of betrayal.”
The Independent has launched its #FinalSay campaign to demand that voters are given a voice on the final Brexit deal.
Sign our petition here
