Sterling took a sharp tumble and crashed below the €1.16 barrier shortly after the announcement was made at around 2:30PM UK time. The pound is currently trading at €1.1574 against the euro and $1.2997 versus the US dollar. In a dramatic Commons showdown, Mrs May saw her withdrawal agreement voted down by 344 votes to 286, meaning the UK will now leave the European Union in less than two weeks. Mrs May now has until April 12 to go back to Brussels with new proposals and seek a longer extension to the negotiation process, or see the UK leave without a deal that day.
Mrs May said the outcome today was “a matter of profound regret”.
She continued: “The implications of the House’s decision are grave.
“The legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on 12 April, in just 14 days’ time.
“This is not enough time to agree, legislate for and ratify a deal, and yet the House has been clear it will not permit leaving without a deal.”
An emergency summit was called almost immediately after the vote by European Council president Donald Tusk, scheduled for 10 April in Brussels to discuss the implications of the result.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a general election unless the Prime Minister was willing to find an alternative deal.
Mr Corbyn told MPs: “The House has been clear this deal now has to change, there has to be an alternative found.
“And if the Prime Minister can’t accept that then she must go – not at an indeterminate date in the future but now, so that we can decide the future of this country through a general election.”
Mrs May – who had promised to step down as Prime Minister if her deal was approved – appeared to hint that this was a possibility.
She told MPs: “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House.”
Mrs May said: “This House has rejected no deal. It has rejected no Brexit. On Wednesday it rejected all the variations of the deal on the table.
“And today it has rejected approving the Withdrawal Agreement alone and continuing a process on the future.
“This Government will continue to press the case for the orderly Brexit that the result of the referendum demands.”
Michael Brown, senior analyst at Caxton FX, said: “Sterling has fallen this afternoon – down 0.4 percent against both the euro and the US dollar – after Parliament voted once again to reject the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement.
“Political headwinds facing the pound have now increased, with Parliament now needing to find a consensus on a new way forward, likely through a second round of indicative votes on Monday increasing the prospects of a long extension.”