that for the first time in this long saga,

this house has actually accepted its responsibilities together,

come together, and embraced a deal.

CROWD: Yea.

SEBASTIAN PAYNE: Boris Johnson had a bittersweet victory

in the House of Commons last night.

On the one hand, the prime minister

won a vote in principle on his Brexit deal.

A majority of 30 MPs said they would

back Mr Johnson's new withdrawal agreement

on the second reading.

But he then suffered an immediate defeat when

the programme motion that defines the terms of debate was

defeated.

The key thing was only five Labour MPs backed that

programme motion whereas 19 had backed Mr Johnson's deal.

So once again, we are in Brexit limbo.

The House of Commons in theory has

approved Mr Johnson's Brexit deal, but not on the timetable

he wants to do it.

BORIS JOHNSON: The EU must now make up their minds

over how to answer parliament's request for a delay.

And the first consequence, Mr Speaker,

is that the government must take the only responsible course

and accelerate our preparations for a no deal outcome.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

But secondly, I will speak--

I will speak to EU member states about their intentions

until they have reached a decision, until we reach--

[INAUDIBLE] we will pause this legislation.

SEBASTIAN PAYNE: So what's going to happen next?

Well, Boris Johnson has thrown Brexit back over to the EU

and said there will have to respond on his request

to delay Brexit once again.

That request was forced by Parliament.

If that's a relatively short request or a flexible request

that could fall away once a deal is passed,

Mr Johnson will probably go along with it.

But if EU leaders come back and say

it needs to be a much longer request,

then Downing Street is going to want

to push for a general election.

Downing Street has tried for this twice in recent months,

but has been thwarted by labour MPs.

2/3 of the Commons needs to vote for a general election.

And Labour MPs don't particularly want an election

right now, not least because the party is 10 points behind

in the opinion polls.

BORIS JOHNSON: One way or another,

we will leave the EU with this deal to which this house has

just given its ascent.

CROWD: Yea.

SEBASTIAN PAYNE: So once again, it's over to Brussels

to see what they come back with.

Once again, MPs are very good at saying

what they don't want with Brexit,

but haven't quite said exactly what they do.