Theresa May rasps her way to Brexit defeat as she's struck by a sore throat

Theresa May will be nursing more than her pride after suffering a second Brexit defeat in the Commons, after rasping her way through proceedings.

Not for the first time in her premiership Mrs May was forced to take the stand with a croaky voice, adding insult to injury when MPs voted down her Brexit deal by 391 votes to 242.

She famously coughed and spluttered her way through a speech at the 2017 Conservative Party Conference.

The Prime Minister’s plight was the delight of Twitter as users took to the platform in force to mock the embattled leader as she tried in vain to persuade MPs to back her deal.

Mash Report host Nish Kumar said: “It’s going to turn out that Theresa May is speaking like this because someone bet her she couldn’t do the whole speech in a Tom Waits voice.”

And radio host Iain Lee said: “Theresa May doing her sick voice so she doesn’t have to turn up got work tomorrow. Genius. We’ve all done it.”

However, not everyone was so quick to mock.

Read more: Brexit: What happens next?

Channel 4 News host Krishnan Guru-Murthy said: “Theresa May has lost her voice – this is awful.”

Battling against her ailment the Prime Minister made a statement after the result of the vote was read out, saying: “I continue to believe that by far the best outcome is the UK leaves the European Union in orderly fashion with a deal.

“And that the deal we have negotiated is the best and indeed only deal available.”

She confirmed that MPs will vote on whether or not they back a no-deal Brexit tomorrow and, if they reject no deal, will then vote on whether to delay Brexit on Thursday.

If MPs support delaying Brexit, Mrs May will be forced to request an extension to Article 50 from the EU.