British PM Faces Confidence Vote after Brexit Humiliation

Prime Minister Theresa May will on Wednesday face a confidence vote after MPs overwhelmingly rejected her deal to leave the European Union, leaving Britain with no plan as it hurtles towards Brexit on March 29, reports AFP. 

May suffered the largest government defeat in modern British history on Tuesday night when the House of Commons rejected by 432 votes to 202 the withdrawal agreement she struck with Brussels late last year.

The EU immediately warned that the vote raises the risk of a hugely disruptive "no deal" Brexit where Britain could sever ties with its biggest trading partner overnight.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker urged London to "clarify its intentions as soon as possible", warning: "Time is almost up."

Ireland, the only EU member state with a land border with Britain, said it would now intensify preparations for a "disorderly Brexit".

May struck a conciliatory tone after the vote, promising cross-party talks to try and salvage a workable Brexit deal before returning with a new plan next Monday.

She expects to win the confidence vote scheduled for around 1900 GMT on Wednesday night.

It was tabled by opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who wants to force a general election.

While her own Conservative MPs and her allies in Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have led the charge against her Brexit deal, they do not want a Labour government.

However, Britain's newspapers were withering at the scale of her defeat, a damning verdict on 18 months of negotiations with the EU.

The top-selling Sun tabloid said May was "crushed", while the Daily Mail said her power was left "hanging by a thread", and one commentator in The Times described her as a "zombie prime minister...