Tory MPs will operate a "shift rota" to attend their party conference and sit in Parliament after the Conservatives were denied a three-day recess for their annual get-together.

The Commons voted 289-306 against a motion to hold a recess that would have allowed the Conservative Party Conference to go ahead without Parliament sitting at the same time.

The Government now fears opposition MPs will try to ruin the party conference by seizing control of Parliamentary business and attempting to pass new laws that would further frustrate Brexit.

If the Speaker allowed them to do so, Tory MPs would have to rush back to Westminster for votes before returning to Manchester, where the conference is being held.

The Government has scheduled non-partisan business for the whole of next week in the hope that Labour and other opposition parties will refrain from "playing games".

But a senior Labour source said last night: "We reserve the right to use Parliamentary tactics as we see fit."

After a cross-party meeting yesterday attended by Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and the Independent Group for Change, the party leaders released a joint statement saying that: "Parties will continue to look at all Parliamentary mechanisms to stop a no deal and will meet again on Monday."