Boris Johnson news - live: Brexit bill ‘paused’ after MPs vote for it but kill off plan for Halloween exit

Follow all the latest developments as they happened

Boris Johnson says the withdrawal agreement bill will be pulled and he will call a general election if the government loses the programme motion

MPs have voted in favour of a Brexit withdrawal bill for the first time – but killed off Boris Johnson’s proposal to ram it through Parliament, thereby derailing his plan to leave by Halloween.

The Commons voted by 329 votes to 299 – a majority of 30 – to approve the prime minister’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) in principle, six months after killing off Theresa May’s equivalent version.

However, the PM then lost a vote on his proposed timetable, which stipulated the bill would have to clear all its Commons stages by the end of Thursday in order to fulful his "do or die" pledge to exit the EU at the end of the month, by a margin of 322 to 308.

Mr Johnson then announced the legislation would be "paused", meaning that the EU will now have to grant an extension to Brexit in order to avoid the UK crashing out with no deal in nine days' time.

Key Points

• PM will pull Brexit bill if government loses timetable vote
• MPs attack 'abomination' of three-day timetable
• Labour MPs will table amendment on Final Say public vote
• Cross-party group tables customs union amendment
• Tusk says EU should treat extension request 'in all seriousness'
• Corbyn offers PM 'reasonable timetable' for bill
• Tusk to recommend EU member states approve Brexit delay

[22 October 2019 22:21 · Chiara.Giordano]

A Number 10 source has implied there will be an election if a delay to Brexit is agreed by the EU, according to ITV's Daniel Hewitt.

[22 October 2019 22:25 · Chris Stevenson]

Here is our news wrap from Rob Merrick of that dramatic 15 minutes in the Commons, where victory for Boris Johnson turned into a frustrating defeat.

[22 October 2019 22:35 · Chiara.Giordano]

Brexit only starts to make sense once you work out you're meant to be hopelessly confused, writes Tom Peck...

If you’re confused by all this, then take comfort from the fact you’re meant to be. None of this is meant to make any sense. That’s the whole plan.

For seventeen spectacular minutes, the House of Commons actually had an opinion on Brexit