Brexit vote result – live: Boris Johnson suffers second humiliating defeat as MPs vote to block no deal but put May’s deal back on table on technicality
Follow updates from Westminster as they happened
Your support helps us to tell the story
My recent work focusing on Latino voters in Arizona has shown me how crucial independent journalism is in giving voice to underrepresented communities.
Your support is what allows us to tell these stories, bringing attention to the issues that are often overlooked. Without your contributions, these voices might not be heard.
Every dollar you give helps us continue to shine a light on these critical issues in the run up to the election and beyond
Eric Garcia
Washington Bureau Chief
Boris Johnson‘s plan to call an early general election was rejected after his earlier bid to keep a no-deal Brexit on the table suffered a major blow.
The prime minister had called for a poll to be held on 15 October after legislation designed to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU on 31 October cleared the Commons on Tuesday.
But Labour and other opposition MPs refused to back the motion for a snap election, which needed a two-thirds majority in the Commons, while the risk of a no-deal exit remained.
The government failed to secure the support of two-thirds of MPs, with the Commons voting 298 to 56 – 136 short of the number needed.
Mr Johnson urged MPs to reflect on what he thinks is the “unsustainability of this position overnight and in the course of the next few days”.
See below for live updates
A judicial review hearing into the decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks will be held tomorrow, the judiciary has announced.
The hearing in the case of Gina Miller vs the prime minister will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice at 10am on Thursday.
The judiciary said in an announcement: "The judges will be the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon; the Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton and the President of the Queens Bench Division, Dame Victoria Sharp.
"The court will consider the request for the case to be heard, and if it agrees, a full hearing will follow the same day."
MPs must acknowledge the evidence of the possible effects of no-deal Brexit, Hilary Benn says.
"All of us have seen the government's own economic assessment," he says. Make UK has described no deal as "an act of economic vandalism", he adds.
"We haven't discussed anything like enough what happens the other side of 31 October," says Hilary Benn, agreeing with a colleague who says that on 1 November the first thing Britain will need to do is seek a withdrawal agreement.
Welcome to the Thunderdome! Oh boy, do we have a contest for you at the Westminster Arena this week. Only... we can’t tell you who the sides are: anyone could be deselected from Boris Johnson’s team at any moment; Seumas Milne and Justine Greening are, for the moment, as one. And we can’t tell you what the contest is about. I’m pretty sure it was about the European Union once, but that’s like saying the First World War was about Slavic separatism, writes Richard Godwin.
We can’t even say what game is being played: it could be Quidditch, it could be Texas-Hold-’Em, it could be WWE, it could be all of those things at once.
No deal "will not be the end of Brexit", merely "the end of the beginning", says Hilary Benn.
Alistair Burt, the newly-minted independent MP, insists the bill "does not prevent the government from negotiating" with the EU.
The arguments advanced by Boris Johnson on that front are just another excuse for failing to get a good deal, he says.
ANALYSIS
Our home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden examines Sajid Javid's announcement of funding for police.
The chancellor’s announcement finally brought limited detail on how Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 20,000 police officers will be funded.
Sajid Javid promised £750m for the first year of the uplift, with £45m to be spent by the end of 2019 to get the first 2,000 officers in place.
"We've seen too many horrifying stabbings on Britain's streets, so with our frontline officers reporting that they are overstretched it's clearly time to act and do more,” he said.
Sajid Javid gives a spending update on Wednesday (AFP/Getty Images)
Police leaders are doubtful over whether there will be enough suitable candidates or training capacity to hit the target in three years.
Analysis by The Independent suggests that more than 46,000 will have to be hired to meet the target and replace officers leaving the service in the period.
More than half of the police forces in England and Wales are failing to meet their modest current recruitment targets.
Even if achieved, the uplift would still fall short of the 21,000 officers lost since 2010 – and there are no plans to reverse the separate decline of 15,000 police staff, which has resulted in officers being dragged into back office and administrative duties.
The shadow chancellor pointed to the Conservatives’ previous cuts and questioned the detail of the plan.
"They seem to forget they cut 20,000 police officers," John McDonnell told the House of Commons.
"The government has claimed they are planning to recruit 20,000 more police officers but can the chancellor tell us yet how many will actually be on the front line?”
The sharp reduction in funding for police and the wider criminal justice system has been linked to rising violence and plummeting prosecution rates.
The spending review was unveiled after inspectors called on the government to urgently recruit probation officers, who are buckling under the pressures of their workload and staff shortages while trying to manage high-risk criminals.
"Today we invest more in our criminal justice system to manage that increasing demand, with a 5 per cent real-terms increase in the resource budget for the Ministry of Justice and an increase in their capital budget to £620m next year, and an extra £80m for the Crown Prosecution Service,” Mr Javid said.
"Taken together today's spending round will dramatically improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, with more prosecutors, a reformed probation system, better security in prisons and funding to begin delivery of 10,000 new prison places."
Phillip Hammond has been speaking, the day after losing the Tory whip.
He said that Boris Johnson, as a new PM with a new government, might have stood a chance of "getting a hearing" in Brussels if he had proposed specific, workable or changes to the Irish backstop measure.
But he added: "By setting the bar as he has at the total removal of the backstop, he has set the bar at a level that is impossible for the European Union to comply with."
Boris Johnson has repeatedly said said that he does not want a general election, but he has claimed that if a parliament forces the government to extend the Brexit deadline he will have no choice but to trigger an early poll.
But how likely is a snap election and how will we get there? Here is Sean O'Grady with the answers to those questions.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments