British Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to a critical European Union summit with her authority diminished after Tory rebels inflicted a humiliating House of Commons defeat on the British Government in a major Brexit vote.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is attending the European Council Summit this morning as negotiations on Brexit move towards the next phase.

The European Parliament is to demand that last week’s Brexit deal is converted into a legally binding text as soon as possible.

Britain’s exit from the EU is a "waste of time and energy", the European Parliament’s chief Brexit co-ordinator has said.