Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a record seventh defeat in the House of Commons on Thursday when members of Parliament rejected his request to allow them to leave for the Conservative Party conference next week.

The refusal to allow the Conservatives a conference recess breaks a long tradition between the political parties in the UK.

It came one day after Johnson was found to have broken the law by suspending Parliament for several weeks.

The Conservatives had argued that any refusal would damage businesses in Manchester, where the conference is due to take place.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday suffered a record seventh House of Commons defeat when members of Parliament voted to wreck the Conservative Party's annual conference by refusing a parliamentary recess.

The party is due to meet in Manchester on Sunday, with a speech by the prime minister on Wednesday.

However, MPs voted 306-289 on Thursday against allowing a Commons recess, meaning Parliament will still sit next week.

Former Conservative MPs who were kicked out of the party after rebelling on Brexit helped defeat the government, with the former Cabinet ministers David Gauke and Amber Rudd voting against the motion.

It throws the party's plans for the event into chaos and raises the prospect of Conservative MPs shuttling between Manchester and London from Sunday to Wednesday.

There was more confusion on Thursday when the government's chief whip emailed contradictory instructions to MPs.

In one email to Conservative MPs, and seen by Business Insider, Mark Spencer said while the conference would go ahead as planned, the government would "need as many of you in London as possible."

However, he later sent another email, also seen by Business Insider, urging Conservative MPs to attend the conference in Manchester.

Conferences are usually an opportunity for Cabinet ministers to make headline-grabbing policy announcements and can often hand the party in question a significant boost in polls.

But Jeremy Corbyn indicated on Wednesday that his Labour Party, which held its conference over the weekend, would not support attempts to shut down Parliament for the conference next week until Johnson backed down on his threats to break the law and force a no-deal Brexit on October 31.

Read more: Boris Johnson tells friends of slain MP Jo Cox to back Brexit if they want to stop getting death threats

"I won't support anything that shuts down Parliament until it is absolutely clear that the government will abide by the law and apply for an extension," he told BBC Radio 4's "Today" program.

Johnson lost his working majority in the Commons earlier this month when he withdrew the Conservative whip from 21 rebels, meaning he would struggle to win any vote in the chamber.

Eight of those expelled MPs voted against the government on Thursday, helping to defeat the motion.

Usually, the government tables a motion at the start of September to allow a recess for each party to hold its conference over several weekends until October. But Johnson instead attempted to shut down Parliament from the start of September — a decision that on Wednesday was ruled unlawful — meaning MPs did not have a chance to vote on the usual recess schedule.