'Humiliation on a historic scale': what the papers say about first day of Brexit debate

Theresa May’s shocking day in parliament dominates the front pages, with papers leading on the prime minister suffering three defeats including a historic Commons vote that found the government in contempt of parliament.

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As Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, put it: “That’s an absolutely terrible, terrible set of front pages for the government.”

The Mirror runs the headline: “63 minutes of mayhem”, saying the day’s events left the prime minister’s authority “in shreds after a humiliating hat-trick of defeats. It threw her Brexit plans into disarray and created further chaos.”

The Telegraph labels Tuesday “The day May lost control” saying the prime minister had “suffered humiliation on a historic scale … as her government became the first to be found in contempt of parliament”.

The Telegraph – one of the few still pushing for a hard Brexit, and unhappy with the agreement May reached with Brussels – is pulling no punches. Also on its front page are quotes from various comment pieces, including one labelling May’s actions “incompetence on a monumental scale” and another that offers the brutal assessment: “Mrs May has a high threshold for humiliation”.

The Express, also a pro-Brexit paper, takes a different tack, telling readers that MPs are working against them. “YOUR democratic vote was thrown into jeopardy with brazen MPs launching a coup on the 17.4m people who voted to leave the EU,” said the paper. Its headline is a warning to parliament: “Sabotage Brexit at your peril!”

“May staggers on after three Brexit defeats in a single day,” is the Guardian’s headline, with the paper reporting that “Theresa May yesterday suffered an extraordinary three parliamentary defeats in a single day as a rebellious MPs sought to wrest back control of Brexit.”

The Guardian also says May’s defiant speech to parliament sounded to some “like a first draft of her own political obituary, with the future of her government in doubt”.

The Times leads with its interview with Matthew Hedges, the Durham PhD student who is back in the UK after being imprisoned in the UAE, but also features a front page story about the parliamentary goings-on, under the headline: “May suffers worst defeats by PM in Commons for 40 years”.

The i adapts the Brexit campaign’s own slogan: “Parliament takes back control”, reporting that Commons would now “get a say on Plan B if May’s deal is rejected”.

The Mail, which has broadly supportive of the agreement reached by May carries the headline: “Brexit on a knife edge” and warns that “the future of Brexit was in the balance. Though it is generally pro-May, the Mail did concede that yesterday’s “extraordinary scenes” were a “humiliating defeat” for the PM.

The Sun doesn’t lead on Brexit, featuring it as a small story in the masthead, but, true to form, cannot resist a pun in its headline, calling Tuesday “PM’s darkest May on Brexit”, which the text of the story quickly clarifies is its way of talking about “her darkest day”.