How has the EU reacted to Theresa May’s latest defeat in the Commons?

Analysis: The EU is reluctant to comment officially on the PM’s setback, but as Ashley Cowburn explains, it’s possible to guess their view

Theresa May leaves from the rear of 10 Downing Street (AFP)

A fortnight ago, Theresa May claimed to have received a "substantial and sustainable" mandate to renegotiate her deal with Brussels after she – perhaps unusually – won a vote in the Commons on a government-backed plan.

On Valentine's Day, however, the fragile sense of Tory unity was once more shattered as a bloc of Conservative Brexiteers – the European Research Group – decided to abstain, delivering a humiliating defeat for the prime minister in the House of Commons.

Her motion seeking to reiterate the chamber's support for the approach to leaving the EU expressed on 29 January was resoundingly rejected by 45 votes – 303 to 258.

"There goes the strong mandate," one EU source reacted drily to Sky News.

While the result was non-binding on the government, it will undoubtedly create fresh concern in EU quarters over whether the prime minister can actually convince enough MPs to back her deal once she brings it back to parliament for a second "meaningful vote".

The European Commission has not commented on the situation, but some of the EU 27 have offered their thoughts on the defeat via members of their own governments.

Speaking on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme on the morning after the defeat, the Greek foreign minister George Katrougalos said the vote on Thursday was part of the contradictory message the EU was receiving from the UK.

"It complicates even further the situation," he said. "It's very, very difficult to be optimistic about Brexit under these circumstances."

But he did offer: "I cannot exclude a miracle. Miracles happen, but I cannot see what kind of miracle it is that could save the day."

His Irish counterpart, Simon Coveney, expressed dismay that the British government had let the issue of a no deal get as far as it has.

"I think it is extraordinary and unbelievable really that the British parliament and the British government have let it come to this," he said.

"We are 42 days out until Britain is due to leave, there is still division within a political party that is causing Ireland to spend hundreds of millions of euros to prepare for a no deal."

Despite fresh concern from the bloc and dismay at the vote in the Commons, Downing Street has since insisted that pretty much nothing has changed.

Out to defend the government on Friday morning, the Commons leader Andrea Leadsom claimed the result was "more of a hiccup than the disaster that is being reported". But however the government attempts to spin the Valentine's Day defeat, it doesn't exactly inject confidence into the negotiations in Brussels over Ms May's ability to secure a parliamentary majority in the 42 days left until Brexit.

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