'Hanging by a thread': How the papers covered Theresa May's day of Brexit humiliation

PM referred to as 'desperate', 'running scared' and 'truly stuffed'

Theresa May’s decision to delay the vote on her Brexit dominate Tuesday's front pages as she travels to Europe in an effort to secure concessions from the EU and save her deal.

The prime minister is referred to as "desperate", "running scared" and "truly stuffed" after pulling a parliamentary vote on the agreement over fears it would be lost by a "significant margin".

Covering a dramatic day in the House of Commons, the front page of the The Independent’s Daily Edition leads with: “Let’s call the whole thing off”.

The lead story highlights that Ms May has “delayed the vote indefinitely to lobby for concessions yet again” despite European leaders saying that further negotiations were not on the table.

The Daily Telegraph riffs on Margaret Thatcher's 1980 conference speech, with the headline: "The lady is for turning".

It adds: "Tory MPs who want to save their party, not their leader (they can't do both), should submit a letter to Sir Graham Brady as soon as possible.

"May must go before it's too late. Last week, the government was found in contempt of parliament for the first time in history. Yesterday, it earned the contempt of the whole nation."

Inside the paper, former Tory leader William Hague writes the party is "on the edge of its greatest crisis in modern times", while the leader of the Democratic Unionists in Westminster, Nigel Dodds, questions whether Ms May has been listening to concerns about the Withdrawal Agreement.

The Daily Mirror writes that the delay is "cowardly" and futile", with its leader saying: "The national good is all but forgotten in the PM's need to save her own skin and her desire to preserve the modern Tories - that splintering coalition of venal interests that caused this mess and keeps on making it worse."

The Times said Ms May would "beg" European leaders as she attempts to salvage her deal.

Inside the paper, a sketch on the prime minister’s speech says the atmosphere "was like a vet's surgery after a family has been told that ol' Fluffy isn't going to pull through".

It adds: "An hour after her statement, Santa Claus was seen slipping into Downing Street. Technically he was there for a children's party but perhaps he had something in his sack for the PM, who naively still believes in Christmas miracles."

Overseas, and Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter contains an opinion piece which says that "Brexit is on its way to becoming a farce of intrigues and misunderstandings", while Svenska Dagbladet writes the situation has gone "from great uncertainty about Brexit to complete chaos."

Ms May makes the front page of Aftenposten in Norway, with the centre-right paper calling the cancelled vote a "desperate measure to buy time", while the left-wing Klassekampen carries an interview with a retired bus driver Roy Potter from Dover, who is calling for a Norway-style deal.

"Fears its all over for Dover", reads the headline, with the paper referring to the Brexit plan as "hanging by a thread".

Agencies contributed to this report