May heads to EU summit after Brexit defeat by her own party

London

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is headed to a European summit that was set to approve the breakthrough victory in Brexit talks she celebrated last week. Instead, she arrives after a serious defeat at the hands of her own party.

Lawmakers voted 309 to 305 on Wednesday evening to change her government's planned legislation so that it guarantees they will get a "meaningful vote" on the final deal to leave the European Union at the end of negotiations in 2019. And rather than the Brexit hardliners who have so often undermined her, this time it was pro-Europeans who defected.