UK set for another major Brexit vote to rule out no-deal exit

A day after British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit divorce bill was rejected in a bruising 149-vote defeat, MPs returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to vote on whether to prevent the UK's exit from the European Union by the March 29 deadline without any deal in place.

The latest motion to try and avert the no-deal Brexit, which would see UK crash out of the 28-member economic bloc without any transition phase, follows a rejection of May's withdrawal agreement 391 to 242 despite a final push by her to try and convince hard-Brexiteers that the concessions she had won to the controversial Irish backstop clause would not see the UK tied to EU rules indefinitely.

"I may not have my own voice, but I understand the voice of the country," May said as she took to the Commons despatch box for her weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, still struggling with a sore throat.

"I believe we have a good deal. No deal is better than a bad deal but I have been working for us to leave on 29 March and leave with a good deal," she said.

The motion tabled by her to be voted on Wednesday evening reads: "This House declines to approve leaving the European Union without a withdrawal agreement and a framework on the future relationship on 29 March."