'Humiliated': British press says May 'crushed' by defeat

Prime Minister Theresa May was left "crushed" and "humiliated", Britain's newspapers said Wednesday as they raked over the fallout from parliament's huge rejection of her EU divorce deal.

Daily papers said May's deal was sunk after the huge vote against the agreement struck between May's government and Brussels, as she prepared to fight a no-confidence motion on Wednesday.

The Daily Telegraph's front page read: "A complete humiliation", following the 432 to 202 vote by MPs to reject the deal.

Its editorial said May had misjudged parliament and the EU had failed to understand the "essential issues of sovereignty and freedom" behind the Brexit vote.

"The government must regain the confidence of the house, rethink the agreement and go to the Europeans with a united front. Whether or not Mrs May leads that effort is a decision upon which she will now have to think very hard."

The broadsheet's parliamentary sketch writer Michael Deacon said May's pre-vote plea to MPs "had all the brio of a