'Brextinct': front pages on Wednesday after May's Brexit vote defeat

The vote arrived in time for editors to fashion their front pages and the results are not good for Theresa May.

The Sun has gone all-out, delivering a classic. “Brextinct”, is its headline and they have pasted May’s face onto a dodo. Presumably the headline intends to speak to the prime minister’s tenure as much as her deal.

The Guardian features a rare picture of the No lobby, which is packed with MPs walking through it to vote against May’s Brexit deal. The headline is “May suffers historic defeat as Tories turn against her” and the paper paints a picture of how the remarkable day unfolded, saying: “On a day of extraordinary drama at Westminster, the House of Commons delivered a devastating verdict on May’s deal, voting against it by 432 to 202. The scale of the defeat, by a majority of 230, was unprecedented in the modern parliamentary era and saw ardent Brexiters such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson walk through a packed division lobby cheek-by-jowl with passionate remainers.”

The Daily Mirror focuses on the no-confidence motion launched by Jeremy Corbyn, with the splash: “No deal, no hope, no clue, no confidence.”

“A complete humiliation,” says the Telegraph, which reports her Brexit deal has “turned to dust”. The paper is happily sticking the knife in to May, running a front page comment piece saying “It takes a special kind of skill to get that many people to unite against you”.

“May suffers historic defeat,” is the Times’ headline. Its front page story says “Theresa May was under mounting pressure last night to delay Brexit after she suffered the largest Commons defeat in political history”.

The Daily Express’s splash is “Dismay”. But the paper, which is pro-Brexit, is not angry with May, whom the paper says “valiantly fought for her deal”.

The Express also has a lengthy directive to MPs on its front page: “This nation is crying out for unity, but all Jeremy Corbyn wants is to oust the PM. Now it’s time for the MPs to do their duty and work with Theresa May for a deal that satisfies the 17.4m who voted Brexit … Don’t fail us!”

Even the Daily Mail, which is usually incredibly supportive of the prime minister, can only muster: “Fighting for her life”.

Still keen to show its support for May, the Mail says: “The prime minister called on mutinous Tory MPs to back her in a confidence vote tonight. Another defeat could trigger an election and put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.”

The Financial Times’ headline is “May’s Brexit deal crushed by Commons” and its story tries to convey the scale of the defeat, saying “Theresa May’s Brexit deal, the product of two years of torturous negotiations in Brussels, was last night overwhelmingly rejected by the House of Commons.”

The i calls the day’s events a “historic humiliation”, pointing out that Tory backbenchers voted “six to one against her Brexit deal” and the Scotsman runs the simple headline “Crushed”.