The House of Commons is minutes away from a historic vote that could pave the way for MPs to block Boris Johnson from crashing the country out of the EU – or, if it goes his way, empower him to do so.

The prime minister's statement to the House earlier this evening was upstaged when Tory MP Dr. Phillip Lee dramatically crossed the floor to sit with the Liberal Democrats, depriving him of his majority.

It came after leading Tory rebel Philip Hammond confirmed he would vote for the proposed legislation designed to block a no-deal Brexit and claimed “there will be enough people for us to get this over the line today”.

No 10 officials have indicated Boris Johnson will put in train a general election slated for 14 October if he loses today’s crunch vote.

Labour have indicated they may vote in favour of such a poll, but only if they could be certain Mr Johnson would not move the date until after Britain is due to leave on October 31, in effect bringing about a no-deal by default. (Independent, UK)