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The Irish prime minister pleaded with Sinn Fein’s president Mary Lou McDonald to take the unprecedented action to counter rebellious Conservatives trying to oust Mrs May and force a no-deal divorce. The Prime Minister faces a vote of no confidence, leaving EU leaders fearful for future Brexit negotiations and scrambling for ideas of how best to ensure the UK’s orderly divorce from the bloc. Mr Varadkar made his bombshell intervention into British politics in order to save the Irish backstop, which he insists cannot be renegotiated.

In a direct appeal to Sinn Fein, he said: "We are trying to avoid a scenario in which the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland crashes out of the European Union and that means ratifying the Withdrawal Agreement which the European Union and 28 governments have agreed. "And the best thing you can do to avoid that scenario occurring, to avoid disruption to businesses, avoid possible loss of jobs, particularly in Northern Ireland and the border, is for you to take up your seats in Westminster and to vote for that Withdrawal Agreement. "And the second best thing you can do is to bring together the institutions that were established in the Good Friday Agreement. These are the things you can do." Sinn Fein has seven elected MPs elected in the House of Commons from constituencies in Northern Ireland.

Brexit news: Leo Varadkar asks Sinn Fein MPs to take seat in Commons to save Theresa May's deal

But the Irish republican party traditionally refuses to sit in parliament because of the abstentionist policy they operate under. The party says it will not swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen and argues that its constituents should only be served by representatives sitting in the Republic of Ireland. Mrs May cancelled a trip to Dublin to discuss Brexit with Mr Varadkar today after news of the no-confidence motion in her leadership. Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, announced he had received the threshold of 48 letters to trigger the contest.

The Prime Minister vowed to fight the vote with “everything I have got” and warned would-be rebels that ousting her from Downing Street risks delaying or even cancelling Brexit. She has since told the committee she will stand down ahead of the next general election but insists she will guide Britain out of the EU. Today, Mrs May will meet with her EU counterparts at the European Council summit in Brussels in the hope of securing a number of assurances that the bloc’s leaders share her ambitions to avoid the backstop. She has already faced significant rejections from the bloc’s most senior leaders on the prospect of renegotiating the withdrawal agreement and backstop.