Tim Farron has apologised after he skipped a knife-edge Brexit vote to give a £5 talk about 'intolerance' to Christians following a row over whether gay sex is a sin.

The former Lib Dem leader was speaking to 100 people in an abbey in Dorset while MPs backed a divisive Hard Brexit by just three votes last night.

Current leader Sir Vince Cable also missed the vote because he was in a meeting. Party sources refused this morning to say where he was or what he was doing.

The anti-Brexit campaigners were absent despite changes to Theresa May's Brexit plan passing by a tiny majority in a day of House of Commons chaos.

Events changed rapidly through the day over the amendments to the Customs Bill, which Tory Leavers made in a bid to wreck Mrs May's plan for 'Soft Brexit'.

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First the amendments were doomed to fail. Then Theresa May decided to back them to stop a Brexiteer revolt. Then, finally, Labour decided to vote against them - setting up the last-minute showdown.

In the end the key amendment - making it illegal for Britain to collect customs tariffs on behalf of the EU, unless the EU reciprocates - passed by 305 votes to 302.

That meant if Mr Farron and Sir Vince had turned up, just one more Remainer would have needed to join them for it to be blocked.

Three Labour Brexiteer rebels - Frank Field, Kate Hoey and Graham Stringer - also backed the amendment. If two of them had switched, the vote would also have been blocked.

(Image: John Phillips)

Mr Farron dramatically quit the Lib Dem leadership to "remain faithful to Christ" last year after he was embroiled in a row for refusing to say gay sex wasn't a sin.

Canon Eric Woods, of Sherborne Abbey, confirmed Mr Farron gave the talk - entitled 'illiberal truths' - last night and at least 100 people turned up.

He told the Mirror: "Homosexuality was not mentioned once, either by him or by anybody in the audience."

But he added: "He was talking about values in contemporary society and the increasing intolerance in society.

"It was [on] how people believe their truth is the only truth and they won't accept anyone else's truth."

Meanwhile Sir Vince was in a meeting off the Parliamentary estate, a source said.

The source insisted: "No one thought these two amendments were going to be close. Labour were [still] abstaining after 8pm.

"Fundamentally these two amendments didn't do anything to make the Chequers plan workable. It's still unworkable."

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Mr Farron said: "I was authorised to be absent from the vote last night for a pre-arranged engagement. Nobody expected the vote to be as close as it was.

"We clearly called it wrong, as did Labour, and I take full responsibility for my part – the Tories don’t deserve any luck."