Claims Brexit Secretary told Barnier Britain does NOT want to re-open the ...

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay told EU negotiator Michel Barnier Britain did not have to re-open the divorce deal in a major concession, it was claimed today.

The climbdown will enrage Brexiteers who says the only chance of the deal passing in time for exit day is with the Irish border backstop being re-written. 

During talks this week, Mr Barclay is said to have endorsed legal guarantees on the current wording - far short of what scores of Tory MPs have demanded. 

In a warning shot to the Prime Minister, MPs in the hardline European Research Group refused to endorse her negotiating strategy, consigning her to another humiliating defeat in the Commons.

Mrs May was also abandoned by Remain rebels demanding no deal is taken off the table as she collapsed to a 303 to 258 vote defeat.

The anti no deal MPs were boosted in the aftermath of the vote as Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said Britain would not leave with no deal in March.

Commons leader Andrea Leadsom insisted today last night's defeat was only a 'hiccup' for the PM and said she would continue to seek 'legally binding changes to the backstop'.

Mrs Leadsom told the Today programme that no was 'absolutely' still on the table.

She said: 'The Government is working at pace to deliver what Parliament has clearly told us.' 

She added: 'The vote yesterday did not change anything.' 

Despite Mrs Leadsom's claims, a source involved in the talks on the Irish backstop between Mr Barclay and Mr Barnier this week told The Times, the Brexit secretary said the British focus was on the 'outcome'.

He told Mr Barnier as long as the commitments were legally binding 'it will meet needs'.

Mr Barnier was told the exact nature of the legal guarantees were a 'question for the attorney-general' and that there was plenty of room for 'creativity about how it can be done'. 

As tensions mount today, Mr Burt said: 'We won’t. We are not leaving without a deal. If you want to leave, you’d better agree one. In the next fortnight would help.' 

He added: 'There is a majority in the House to reject no deal. Let’s Leave, with the Agreement, and the chance of a new relationship with the EU.

'Honours both Leavers and those who voted to Remain. Let’s all make the compromise.' 

In total 66 Tories went missing for last night's showdown, while five actively opposed her. 

Summing up the pincer movement Mrs May found herself caught in, both arch-Brexiteer Boris Johnson and his pro-EU brother Jo abstained. 

Mrs May did not even bother to enter the chamber to hear the grim result, with Jeremy Corbyn demanding to know where she was and taunting that she 'can't keep running the clock down'.

The blow came despite Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay desperately trying to reassure mutinous MPs that no deal is not being taken off the table - and warning that Brussels will conclude the UK's 'resolve is weakening'. 

But his tough words only served further to infuriate Remainers. 

The defeat has no binding effect on the government, but plunges her deeper into chaos and could persuade the EU there is no point offering any more concessions on the Irish border backstop.   

Following the vote, a clearly jubilant Mr Corbyn said Mrs May needed to accept her strategy had failed and come forward with a plan that could bring people together to prevent the 'catastrophe' of no deal.

'The Government cannot keep on ignoring Parliament and ploughing on towards March 29 without a coherent plan,' he said.

'She cannot keep on just running down the clock and hoping that something will turn up that will save her day and save her face.'

He asked Speaker John Bercow if there was anything that could be done about Mrs May not turning up to the chamber to hear the result, but was told she was not obliged to be there. 

Senior Tory MPs admitted the Commons showdown had turned into a 'fiasco', but tried to play down the implications - saying the next round of votes on February 27 would be far more significant. 

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'While we didn't secure the support of the Commons this evening, the Prime Minister continues to believe, and the debate itself indicated, that far from objecting to securing changes to the backstop that will allow us to leave with a deal, there was a concern from some Conservative colleagues about taking no deal off the table at this stage.

'The motion on 29th January remains the only one the House of Commons has passed expressing what it does want – and that is legally binding changes to address concerns about the backstop. The Government will continue to pursue this with the EU to ensure we leave on time on March 29.'

The PM's spat with Brexiteers centred on a Remainer-backed amendment that was passed by MPs two weeks ago rejecting the idea of no deal. 

An amendment put forward by former Cabinet minister Caroline Spelman said the UK should not 'leave the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement and a Framework for the Future Relationship'. 

It was narrowly approved by 318 votes to 310 despite the government whipping against.

Although that vote was not binding on ministers, the government motion due to be considered tonight endorses 'the approach to leaving the EU expressed by this House on 29 January'. 

That was apparently intended as a reference to the Brady amendment, which called for the Irish backstop to be replaced with 'alternative arrangements' and was passed with Mrs May's blessing.   

However, it was interpreted by Brexiteers as Mrs May admitting that no deal is off the agenda - despite her repeatedly insisting it is still a possibility.

During the debate, Tory MP Bill Cash said branded the Government motion 'doublethink' and said it 'further undermines public trust'.

He said: 'We're now truly entering the world of George Orwell's Ministry of Truth.

'In his book 1984 Orwell said doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and expecting both of them.

'This double motion is doublethink in action and I cannot possibly vote for it.' 

But former chancellor Ken Clarke launched a scathing attack on the ERG. 

He said: 'The Government has pursued one of the factions on our side of the House, we have a kind of breakaway party within a party, a bit like Momentum really, they've got their leader, they've got their chief whip.

'They are ardent right-wingers, and the Government has set off in pursuit of these bizarre negotiating tactics that some of them say, though some of them seem to want to leave with no deal, because any agreement with foreigners from the continent is a threat to our sovereignty.'

He warned that is 'the wrong group to pursue', and called the Brady amendment 'meaningless'.

But after Mr Barclay entreated Eurosceptics to fall in line, Remainer former Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin said he now believed Mrs May would go for no deal.

'When the chips are down, (she) will actually prefer to do what some of my esteemed colleagues prefer, and to head for the exit door without a deal, which the secretary of state informed us is the policy of Her Majesty's government in the event that her deal has not succeeded. That is terrifying fact,' he told the House. 

Frantic peace talks took place with chief whip Julian Smith overnight to see if the motion could be reworded, but they appeared to reach no settlement.