Yahoo News No confidence vote: What time is it, will Theresa May's government win - or could Jeremy Corbyn end up as PM?
Theresa May's future rests in the balance after Jeremy Corbyn tabled a no-confidence motion on Tuesday night, just minutes after the Government suffered an unprecedented defeat over its Brexit deal.
With MPs voting by 432 to 202 to reject the draft withdrawal agreement, Mr Corbyn raised a point of order requesting that a vote be held on Wednesday, after Prime Minister's Questions.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Corbyn highlighted that the defeat was the largest inflicted on any Government since the 1920s, adding that Mrs May had "lost the confidence of this House and this country."
He said Mrs May's "catastrophic" Brexit defeat represented an "absolutely decisive" verdict by MPs on the Prime Minister's handling of EU withdrawal.
What is a motion of no confidence, how does it work and what time will the vote be?
It is the first time the procedure has been used under the provisions of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act passed by the coalition government under David Cameron.
The no-confidence measure, also known as a censure motion, will test whether a majority of lawmakers support the proposition "that this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government."
Mr Corbyn will move the motion tabled in his name as Leader of the Opposition and will speak first in the debate scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
The Prime Minister will then speak for the Government and at the end of proceedings MPs will vote. Under Parliamentary convention, MPs may have as little as 90 minutes to debate the motion, before they are asked to cast their votes.
The vote is expected to happen at 7pm.
The no-confidence vote on Mrs May's government is completely different from the no-confidence vote she faced in December, when members of her Conservative Party challenged her role as party leader. She survived that vote unscathed.
Can the Government ignore it?
No, it cannot. Under established convention the Government must accede to the demand and make time for the debate and vote to take place.
The vote will take place at 7pm on Wednesday.
What is Theresa May's majority?
There are currently 650 MPs in total, however not all of them will take part in the no confidence vote.
The seven Sinn Fein MPs will not take part, as well as the Speaker of the House (John Bercow), the two tellers (one from the Government and one from the opposition) and the three deputy speakers (two Labour, one Conservative).
This leaves 637 MPs who are expected to take part in the vote, which means Theresa May needs 319 to vote for her to have a majority.
The Conservative Party is just shy of this number; there are 317 Tory MPs. As two will be abstaining from the vote (the Conservative teller and Conservative deputy speaker - note that John Bercow counts as an Independent in his role as Speaker of the House) this means there will only be 315 Tory MPs taking part in the vote.
The DUP has said all of its 10 MPs will vote with the Government, which should give Theresa May the majority she needs.
Labour has 256 MPs (although one teller and two deputy speakers will not vote), the Liberal Democrats have 11 MPs, the SNP has 35, there are eight Independent MPs (excluding the Speaker), four Plaid Cymru and one Green party MP.
Is Theresa May's government likely to win the vote?
Yes. If the Government wins there will not be a general election and ministers will carry on in office.
A Labour victory is remote, but not beyond the realms of possibility. To secure a majority, Mr Corbyn will need to secure the votes of all opposition MPs, including the Democratic Unionists. But on Tuesday night the DUP said it would support the Government, meaning Labour will need to peel off a considerable number of Tory rebels who are willing to vote themselves out of office.
There is no limit to the number of no-confidence votes Mr Corbyn can call.
On Thursday, Mr Corbyn will travel to Hastings, Amber Rudd’s constituency, where he will speak at an event that will be seen by many as a potential springboard from which to launch an election campaign.
The constituency is likely to become one of the key target seats for Labour, with Ms Rudd, a potential successor to Mrs May, wielding a wafer-thin majority of just 346.
This makes Ms Rudd vulnerable to a "decapitation" strategy which could see Labour throw vast resources at the constituency to unseat a possible future Tory leader.
What happens if the government loses the vote?
The Conservative Party will have 14 days to form an alternative Government and win a subsequent confidence vote in the Commons. Mrs May is not required to resign, though it is difficult to see her taking any other form of action.
During that two-week period there is no statutory limit on how many times a confidence motion can be brought forward and voted on.
And if it fails?
Jeremy Corbyn may try to form a coalition of opposition parties capable of winning its own confidence vote in the House, though the chances of this happening or succeeding are slim.
Otherwise, an election will be called and Parliament will dissolve at least 25 days beforehand. A period of “washing up” may be allowed beforehand, in order for MPs to pass any urgent legislation.
So could Tories stay in power without Theresa May as PM?
During the 14-day “cooling-off” period, the FTPA does not stipulate what must happen during this time. The Prime Minister would be within her rights to try and prove that she did, in fact, still have the confidence of the House, while opposition parties could try and form a government.
As the makeup of Parliament would not have changed, the Conservatives would remain the only party with a realistic chance of forming a new government (or of reversing the vote).
While the 12-month period of immunity following the December 12 confidence vote protects Mrs May from another formal attempt by backbenchers to remove her, the party could make it clear her position was untenable.
Therefore, it is possible that a vote of no confidence in the Government could topple Mrs May without bringing the party down with her. If, for example, the DUP had abandoned the Prime Minister for the vote, they might then return to the Tory fold if a candidate they could support were to become Conservative leader.
Nevertheless, if no new government which can command a majority in the House is formed after 14 days then there would be a general election. It would then be up to Conservative MPs and ministers whether to let Mrs May fight that election.
When has this happened before?
The first-ever resignation of a prime minister after a confidence vote came in 1742, with the defeat of Robert Walpole. Walpole is considered Britain’s first prime minister, although the title did not exist at the time.
There have been 23 successful votes of no confidence since then, but only one in the post-war period. That was in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher toppled Jim Callaghan’s government.
The Labour government led by Callaghan lost the opposition motion on March 28 1979 by just one vote, 311-310.
Mr Callaghan immediately announced a dissolution of parliament and a general election, which was subsequently won by the Conservatives.
In 1993, John Major called a vote of confidence in his own government to strengthen it after a long and acrimonious battle in the Commons over the Maastricht Treaty. The government won the motion 339-299.
Votes of confidence were once regular occurrences in the House of Commons, with both governments and opposition parties using them to test support on the backbenches.
There were eight such votes during the 1960s and nine during the 1970s. One of the most high-profile in recent decades took place on November 22 1990, when Labour moved a motion of no confidence in the Conservative government.
It was prompted by Margaret Thatcher failing to secure re-election as Tory leader on the first ballot of a leadership contest. The government won the vote 367-247.
