LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May's EU withdrawal deal has been rejected by MPs for a second time, throwing her Brexit strategy into further confusion, BBC News reported.
MPs voted down her deal by 391 to 242 - a smaller defeat than when they rejected it in January.
The PM said MPs will now get a vote on whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal and, if that fails, on whether Brexit should be delayed. She said Tory MPs will get a free vote on a no-deal Brexit. That means they can vote with their conscience rather than following the orders of party managers.
May also told MPs the government would announce details of how the UK will manage its border with Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit on Wednesday.
If the Commons declines to approve a no-deal Brexit in a vote on Wednesday, a vote on extending Article 50, the legal mechanism taking the UK out of the EU on 29 March, will take place on Thursday, said May.
Announcing the free vote on a no-deal Brexit, she told MPs: "This is an issue of grave importance for the future of our country.
"Just like the referendum there are strongly held and equally legitimate views on both sides.
"For that reason, I can confirm that this will be a free vote on this side of the House."
She said that the choices facing the UK were "unenviable", but because of the rejection of her deal, "they are choices that must be faced".
Mrs May said leaving without a deal remained the UK's default position but Downing Street said she will tell MPs whether she will vote for no-deal when she opens Wednesday's Commons debate on it.
The prime minister did not discuss resigning after her latest defeat because a government led by her had recently won a confidence vote in the Commons, added the PM's spokesman.
She has no plans to return to Brussels to ask for more concessions because, as she told MPs, she still thinks her deal is the best and only one on offer, he added.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister should now call a general election.
"The government has been defeated again by an enormous majority and it must accept its deal is clearly dead and does not have the support of this House," he told MPs.
He said a no-deal Brexit had to be "taken off the table" - and Labour would continue to push its alternative Brexit proposals. He did not mention the party's commitment to back another referendum.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of Brexiteer MPs, said "the problem with the deal was that it didn't deliver on the commitment to leave the EU cleanly and that the backstop would have kept us in the customs union and de facto in the single market".
The Tory MP, who voted against Mrs May's deal, told BBC News: "The moral authority of 17.4 million people who voted to leave means that very few people are actually standing up and saying they want to reverse Brexit. They're calling for a second referendum, they're calling for delay.
"But actually very few politicians are brave enough to go out and say they want to overturn the referendum result."
