Newspaper headlines: Brexit defeat 'humiliation' for May
By BBC NewsStaff
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A tumultuous day in the House of Commons, which saw the government defeated in three key votes relating to Brexit, dominates Wednesday's front pages. The Daily Telegraph sees the prime minister's authority ebbing away, using the headline: "The day May lost control."
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The Daily Mirror agrees, describing Theresa May suffering a "humiliating hat-trick" of defeats in what its headline describes as "63 minutes of mayhem". It quotes Labour MP Ian Lavery saying the government is "in office but not in power".
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For the Metro, the big story was that ministers were found guilty of contempt of Parliament by their fellow MPs for the first time in history. The effect is that the government will release the full legal advice it received before agreeing the Brexit deal, which had been withheld on the grounds it was against the national interest, the paper adds.
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Another of the votes - to give Parliament a greater say in what happens if MPs reject Mrs May's Brexit deal - "appeared to reduce sharply the chances of a no-deal Brexit", according to the Financial Times. A majority of MPs are against the UK leaving without a deal, it explains. Many fear that scenario would cause huge economic damage to the UK.
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"Parliament takes back control," is how the i describes the situation. It points out that the Commons will "get a say on 'Plan B' if May's deal is rejected", despite the prime minister's complaint that the "corrosive" debate "has gone on long enough".
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According to the Daily Mail, the day's events have left "Brexit on a knife edge". The vote to give MPs a greater say "could even halt the Brexit process completely", the paper says, with former Attorney General Dominic Grieve suggesting it could lead to a further referendum on EU membership.
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The Daily Express claims to speak for the 17.4m people who voted Leave in the 2016 In-Out referendum, with its front-page headline warning politicians: "Sabotage Brexit at your peril." It sums up the defeat of the government by saying: "YOUR democratic vote was thrown into jeopardy with brazen MPs launching a coup."
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Despite the defeats the PM "staggers on", according to the Guardian. "May went on to open the [Brexit] debate with a defiant speech, which some at Westminster said sounded like a first draft of her own political obituary, with the future of her government in doubt," it says.
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While Parliamentary proceedings can seem something of a pantomime on occasions, the Daily Star leads with a report about an actual Christmas stage drama. "A top soap star snorted so much cocaine starring in a family festive panto she was dubbed the 'Snow Queen'," it reports.
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Meanwhile, the Times has an exclusive interview with the British PhD student locked up in the United Arab Emirates after being convicted of spying. Matthew Hedges tells the paper he was forced to stand for whole days in ankle cuffs and was interrogated for up to 15 hours at a time during the five-month ordeal.
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And the Sun reports claims that a model was drugged and sexually assaulted in a "celebrity nightclub", while a "baying mob" filmed the attack on their mobile phones. The paper says it has obtained footage of a man molesting the 20-year-old