BBC Radio 5 live

Former Conservative Party chairman and MP Grant Shapps tells BBC Radio 5 live that Theresa May's speech to backbenchers at 5pm is crucial to her survival.

"What she needs to do is to find a way to explain to colleagues how this Parliament can pass her Brexit agreement, her withdrawal agreement," he says.

"If she can do that then she will get through this. If you want my guesstimate, I think she will get through it."

Mr Shapps says Tory MPs could be convinced if she can promise them a binding vote on whether the UK leaves the Northern Ireland backstop, which has been the focus of opponent's concerns.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Tonge, professor of politics at Liverpool University, says: "She's got to give the speech of her life."

And he says the promises that Mr Shapps wants would be impossible for the European Union to sign up to.

The European Parliament has issued a statement after a conference of presidents, as it appears to want to reassure the UK Parliament about the Brexit deal.

It says that renegotiating the backstop is "not possible" as "it is the guarantee that in whatever circumstances there could be no hardening of the border on the island of Ireland".

But it adds it does not want to activate the backstop either.

"The conference reiterated its support for as close as possible future EU-UK relationship such that the deployment of the backstop would not be necessary," it says.

"The president and group leaders reaffirmed that the backstop is in any case to be used only as a measure of last resort."

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright says the consensus among Conservative MPs is that Theresa May will win the vote this evening.

"Everyone is asking themselves how comfortably will she win it," he says.

"The question then is what does it change?

"The challenges would remain the same. Parliament is still completely opposed to her deal.

"The atmosphere in the Conservative party is poisonous - today's vote is not going to solve that."

"At a meeting of the 1922 Committee before the vote, we expect the prime minister to be pretty explicit that she doesn't have any intention to fight another election.

"That is a tactic No 10 is deploying to win over waverers."

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Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin says he will "reluctantly and with a heavy heart" be voting against the prime minister.

He says he wrote his letter to Sir Graham Brady yesterday, after realising that the PM “no longer commands the respect of the Commons".

"We need a new leader who is enthusiastic about Brexit instead of regarding it as a damage limitation exercise," he says.

But if Theresa May were to win, “the problems are still there in the House of Commons”, he says.

“All the MPs could 100% vote for her tonight, and she still hasn’t got a majority in the House of Commons” he says, suggesting that her win could actually bring forward a vote of no confidence in the government.

Responding to Philip Hammond's "extremist" comment, Sir Bernard says it is "odd" to be described as an extremist when 52% of those who voted in the referendum chose to leave the EU.

"It's an Orwellian world we are living in," he says.

As Prime Minister Theresa May faces a vote of no confidence in her leadership, we have heard from the politicians and the media - but what do members of the public think about what is happening?

Since the announcement of the no-confidence vote, the story has been dominating both Google trends and UK trends on Twitter.

There have been more than 90,000 tweets that include "the Conservative Party" and the prime minister's name, as well as the hashtags #NoConfidence and #LeadershipChallenge.

People have been sharing their views online on Mrs May and the latest political fallout from the 2016 EU referendum result.

So what do the public think? Read more here.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

It would be very difficult to support the Brexit deal without changes to the backstop, said International Trade Secretary Liam Fox.

The Tory MP told Andrew Neil: "I'm not even sure the cabinet will agree for it to be put to the House of Commons."

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said she knows of cabinet ministers who said they would support Theresa May, but privately they did not.

She told Politics Live presenter Andrew Neil that if she did survive Wednesday's no confidence vote, she would be "even more mortally wounded than she is now".

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

The chairmen of 10 Conservative associations who spoke to the World at One were split down the middle - five backing the PM and the others wanting a change in leadership.

Sharing their views are Andrea Thorpe from Maidstone and The Weald, Tony Roberts from Newark, Melanie Whitehand from Woking, Linda Taylor for St Ives and the Isles of Scilly, and Patrick Duffy in South West Wiltshire:

Image source, Reuters

The European Council president has written to member states ahead of its last meeting of 2018.

Donald Tusk said the two-day event over Thursday and Friday will cover a matter of topics, but "given the seriousness of the situation in the UK", they will start with Brexit.

He says Theresa May will present her assessment to the council before the EU27 meet to discuss their conclusions.

"As time is running out, we will also discuss the state of preparations for a no-deal scenario," added Mr Tusk.

Read more from the letter here, external.

Theresa May hit back at Jeremy Corbyn during PMQs earlier, saying the Labour leader "should be honest with people" as he just wanted to "bring down the government, create uncertainty, sow division and crash our economy".

She also appeared to employ a complicated pun on the name of the shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner, who has often appeared in the press to deliver Labour's Brexit policy.

We asked people if they have confidence in the PM ahead of a crucial vote on her leadership.

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd accuses some of her fellow Tory MPs of being "too gleeful" about today's events.

"We have a serious job to do, the sooner we get back to delivering that the better," she says.

She says the prime minister is trying to adapt her Brexit deal to reassure her own MPs.

"What my colleagues need to think about is what else? What is their proposal if not this? There is not other legally binding agreement on the table to deliver on the referendum."

She said she believed the PM will win the vote.