Brussels 14 Dec (ANA) - Theresa May is due at a summit in Brussels, hours after Conservative rebels in the Commons defeated the government in a key Brexit vote. MPs backed an amendment giving them a legal guarantee of a vote on the final Brexit deal struck with Brussels. One rebel, Stephen Hammond, was sacked by the prime minister as a party vice chairman in the aftermath of the vote. Other EU member states could decide to move forward to trade talks with the UK at their two-day summit. Mrs May lost by just four votes, as MPs backed an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill by 309 to 305 - her first Commons defeat as prime minister. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was a "humiliating loss of authority" for the prime minister. It will not derail Brexit but MPs who voted against the government hope it will give them a bigger say in the final deal Theresa May strikes with Brussels. The government had promised a "meaningful vote" for MPs on the final Brexit deal, but this defeat means that promise now has legal force and must happen before any UK-EU deal is implemented in the UK.

Ministers had resisted this move because they wanted the ability to start implementing any deal as soon as it was agreed - in case, for instance, it was only agreed at the last minute.(ANA)

FA/ANA/14 December 2017-----