Image source, Reuters

Michael Gove was harangued by an anti-Brexit protester dressed as Santa Claus earlier.

"You won’t be getting any presents from me this year," shouted the man, as the environment secretary headed for an entrance to the Houses of Parliament, surrounded by a scrum of photographers and bemused tourists.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

So what did we learn from PMQs today?

No leadership contender broke cover to harry the prime minister.

Instead, a series of backbenchers - Ken Clarke, Kevin Hollinrake, Neil O’Brien, Maggie Throup - asked supportive questions and won loud cheers.

But there's the rub; the cheers were full throated, to be sure, but on closer inspection quite a number of Conservative MPs remained determinedly silent.

So the PM got her show of strength, and if anything seemed more relaxed than usual. But the further away from her you looked on the Tory benches, the less enthusiastic the troops seemed.

Her strategy was pretty clear - to remind her MPs that the real enemy was Jeremy Corbyn. So her answers to the Labour leader’s questions (and those of a number of other MPs) culminated in a general attack on Labour as a menace to the economy.

Jeremy Corbyn began against intense barracking and did well to maintain his composure as his fury mounted. In such charged circumstances, it is hard to maintain composure and coherence, but he did...

But his condemnation of the government for dithering and delay in submitting its Brexit deal to a Commons vote provoked the obvious retort from the other opposition parties, and some of his own troops, that he should put down a no confidence motion against it - culminating in the Lib Dem leader Vince Cable’s barbed question as to whether the PM thought a motion against her from her party was worse than one in the House.

(Mind you, if Mr Corbyn had listened to the entreaties of the Lib Dems and the SNP, and put down a no confidence motion on Monday, he might well have forestalled the Tories’ own confidence vote as they rallied round against an internal threat.)

Extra points, too, to Labour’s Jim McMahon, who cunningly invited the PM to condemn comments from ex Cabinet minister and Brexiteer Priti Patel about food shortages in Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The really clever bit was that he did not mention her name - allowing Theresa May to reject her ideas, without directly repudiating her. A smart bit of micro-politics, rubbing some salt into Conservative divisions.

The PM certainly emerges from this session unscathed; it is less clear that wavering Tory MPs will have been moved into her camp.

And Labour can simply enjoy the blue on blue battling - the sight of Labour’s court jester, Stephen Pound, attempting to orchestrate opposition cheers for the PM as she arrived in the House illustrates how much fun they are having at the moment.

"This is just the latest in a long line of failures by Theresa May," says Labour MP Seema Malhotra.

"Last year losing her majority, now losing the confidence of Parliament, losing control over the Brexit process and now control over her party."

She said there should be a vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal and if it is voted down Parliament should determine what happens next.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson says his party would not be "arrogant enough to suggest who should be leader of the Conservative Party".

"There is a certain policy which we expect the Conservative Party to follow regardless of who the leader is," he says.

"If that policy is not being followed then they [the Conservatives] will not have our support.

"A promise was made to us by this prime minister that she would deliver on her own manifesto and promises to the people of Northern Ireland not to break up the union.

"Clearly her Brexit deal does not do that."

Sky News

An interesting insight just now from Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh.

She served on Merton Council in south-west London at the same time as Theresa May in the mid-1980s.

She tells Sky News the PM has huge personal strengths, praising her fortitude and belief in public service. She would rather have Mrs May continue as PM than any of the other Tories being touted, such as Boris Johnson, whose elevation she would find "disgusting".

But she says the reality is Mrs May is advocating a Brexit policy that will leave the UK worse off and many people simply will not support that.

Conservative MP Kemi Badenoch says Theresa May only needs to win by one vote to claim victory.

"A win is a win even if it is only a small win," she says, adding that the vote is "very bad timing".

"We need to focus on getting a deal," she says.

Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight

It turns out that Harold Wilson was wrong when he said a week is a long time in politics.

In these fraught times at Westminster a long time is measured in hours, minutes or even seconds.

On Tuesday night, ministers were suggesting in private that Theresa May would lose today's vote of confidence in her leadership.

A key rule of the process - that victory would keep her in place for a year - was counting against her on Tuesday.

Why? Because that would mean she would lead the Tories into an early general election, the one thing Tory MPs agree must not happen.

Wind the clock forward to Wednesday morning and another rule of the process - that the confidence vote must be held promptly - is now counting in the prime minister's favour.

Read the full blog post by Nicholas Watt

SNP MP Joanna Cherry says: "I would like to see Article 50 extended in order to put in place a government that would hold a People's Vote between Theresa May's deal and the option to stay.

"It is vital that we don't get overly focused on Tory in-fighting.

"MPs should be thinking about their constituents and the jobs and living standards that will be affected by Theresa May's deal.

"People now know it is not a choice between deal or no deal. They know there is a third option to remain in the European Union.

"If there is a second referendum, and if England is minded to vote leave and Scotland votes remain again, then Scotland must be allowed the opportunity to choose whether they want to go with Brexit Britain or to be an independent member state of the European Union."

Sky News

John Nott, who served as defence secretary under Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s, is asked how the current turmoil compares to previous Tory conflagrations over Europe.

"Things have been bad but it has never been quite as bad as this," he tells Sky News.

He suggests the prime minister has lost the confidence of Parliament and much of her party, and while he believes she will probably win the vote this evening, that will "not solve anything at all".

Nigel Farage doesn't have a vote this evening but, as always, he is not slow to voice his opinion.

The ex-UKIP leader picks up on comments by Chancellor Philip Hammond, who suggested earlier the vote of confidence might "flush out extremists" within his party who had a "particular agenda" on Brexit.

Mr Farage believes the remarks might encourage Tory MPs to vote against Theresa May.

BBC correspondent Adam Fleming says: "The EU does not want to get involved in the UK's domestic situation.

"Although privately I've been told that the EU sees it as this: 'The whole cabinet signed up to the deal.'

"So it is not Theresa May's Brexit deal it is the UK government's Brexit deal.

"In the dim and distant past of yesterday, we were talking about Theresa May trying to get legal guarantees about when the Irish backstop would be used if it was ever triggered.

"I've been told there has not been enough time to get any official legal text on paper in time for the EU summit tomorrow

"And It is unlikely anything along those lines will be ready before Christmas."

BBC Radio 5 live

Helen Whately, a Tory MP whose constituency of Faversham and Mid-Kent is among those likely to be most affected by a no-deal Brexit, tells BBC Radio 5 live she is urging colleagues to support the prime minister.

"People want us to get on with it," she says. "I want us to have a managed, pragmatic Brexit that works for my constituency in Kent and close to the port - and that's what the prime minister has been working on so hard over the last couple of years.

"She's so close, she's brought back a deal which does so much. What we should be doing is supporting her to get on with that."

BBC News

Michael Gove tells the BBC he is "absolutely sure" Theresa May will win tonight's confidence vote.

The environment secretary says the sooner the matter "is put to bed" and his party unites around the PM's leadership the better.

He suggests the overwhelming majority of people in the country back her approach to Brexit and her efforts to secure a deal in the national interest.