John Campbell
BBC News NI Economics and Business Editor

The Irish government has been consistent that whatever happens in the Brexit process there will be no hardening of the Irish border.

Asked earlier this year, Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar said: "That will just never happen - ever."

But how can that promise be kept in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal?

If there is no deal, there is no transition period or backstop. It would mean the UK becomes a country with which the EU has no trade deal of any description.

Read more from John Campbell here.

BBC News Channel

The confidence vote has made very little difference to the prime minister's position, former attorney general Dominic Grieve says.

The pro-European Tory MP says "the underlying issues are the same".

"There are deep divisions not only within our party but within Parliament about how [Brexit] should best be carried out," he says.

BBC Radio 5 live

Freya, a business woman from Bridgend, pulled no punches when it came to Theresa May on 5 live's Your Call.

"If I was to put this into a business context, we are UK PLC and she is our CEO. What is going on? She's abysmal at running things.

"It's ridiculous, we're just a laughing stock."

Listen live on BBC Sounds.

You can read more on the BBC's Business Live here.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, has called for Theresa May to resign after 117 of her own MPs voted against her.

This morning, this is his advice to her:

He added that "if she got on with Brexit, she'd have a lot of support".

Theresa May has been photographed leaving 10 Downing Street this morning as she heads to Brussels.

Her husband Philip managed to give a cheery wave to the waiting cameras.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay says there could be some movement in Brussels, despite insisting the prime minister's deal is “the only deal on the table”.

He tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “We have a period of time following the vote last night to have those discussions with European colleagues, and I think we saw in the language that was reported last night that there is some movement”.

He adds: "There is a recognition on both sides that the backstop is a concern."

BBC Radio 5 live

Theresa May remains Conservative Party leader after surviving a confidence vote last night. Do you back her to guide Britain through Brexit?

The prime minister's Brexit deal is the only option which can win the support of Parliament and the alternatives would also require a backstop, Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay says.

However he insists Theresa May is listening to the concerns of her critics.

"What we've now got is an opportunity to focus on the deal, to listen to the concerns colleagues have expressed in terms of a backstop, to get the political and legal assurances that colleagues are looking for," he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

“All the other deals all require a backstop. And there’s a very good reason why they require a backstop - because of our commitment to ensuring we don’t have a hard border in Ireland.”

While Lord Heseltine says he "always believed" Theresa May would win the vote of confidence, he adds: "I think it's uncomfortable for her, with the numbers who voted against."

"I always assumed she would win that vote - but of course it's not the vote that matters," he tells BBC Breakfast. "The vote that matters is the one she hasn't put to the House of Commons.

"There are no grounds for thinking she is going to win that vote.

"The whole Brexit strategy is just up in the air and this is extremely serious because the clock is ticking."

Lord Heseltine says he hopes and believes the deal will be rejected - but that this means Britain will face "serious and urgent consequences".

He said there was an "element of delusion" about Mrs May.

"She keeps talking about uniting the country - there's no way she's going to unite the country. It is deeply divided. The whole of her party, the cabinet, are deeply divided. And that reflects public opinion," said Lord Heseltine.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if Labour will respond to Mrs May urging politicians from all sides to "come together" to deliver Brexit.

He says: "The easiest thing for any opposition to do in these circumstances is to warm your hands as the Conservatives self-immolate.

"But you can't do that, not when the issues are so big for the future of the country. You can't play party politics with this, you've got to try to do your best to get a deal which will protect jobs and the economy.

"That's got to be a two-way process, and it hasn't been until now."

He says there is an "overwhelming majority in the House of Commons against no deal" and that needs to be established "once and for all" and then there should be a "proper debate".

"That's why it would have been better to have the vote this week as she promised," he adds: "That would have tested the will of Parliament, that would have set parameters, and it would have been a clear message to our EU partners as well."

Mr McDonnell says that as a result of Mrs May's promise not to lead Tories into the next election, "we are going to be faced with a Tory leadership election for the next six to 18 months" which he says means "18 months of Michael Gove being nice to people - can you imagine that?".

Image source, Reuters

Former minister Nicky Morgan has suggested that a split in the Conservative Party may be looming - with hardline Eurosceptics leaving the party.

She tells the BBC: "I think there's an inevitability that some of these people - the hardest Brexiteers - are going to walk.

"There may be some sort of reconfiguration of parties on the right of the UK political spectrum, and that may be something we are going to have to accept in order to get a Brexit deal through the House of Commons."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Here's a bit more from Iain Duncan Smith on the Today programme.

He says that Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond needs to "moderate" his language - after he suggested that the vote of confidence was a way to "flush out the extremists" in their party.

Mr Duncan Smith says: "I have one simple message for the chancellor: when you start turning on your own party and making accusations about them, that's the beginning of the end for your party.

"You need to moderate your language and recognise that a party is a coalition and we need to get this thing through the line. I do not want to see the party where it is at the moment."

He plays down reports his office was used as an unofficial HQ for rebel MPs and nicknamed the "kill zone" by members of the ERG.

"I don't know anything about that. It wasn't as organised a programme as you are suggesting. The reality is that people came together because there was a vote."

You wouldn't be the only one. Luckily, the BBC's Chris Mason is on hand with his emergency Brexitcast podcast to help make sense of the political mayhem.

BBC Radio 5 live

Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe talks to 5 live Breakfast about the strength of Theresa May's position in the party after yesterday's confidence vote.