Three pro-EU Conservatives have resigned from Prime Minister Theresa May’s party to join a new group in Parliament, further reducing her slim majority as Brexit breaks open deep divisions in both of the main parties.

Key Developments

Three Conservative MPs quit May heads to Brussels to seek changes to her Brexit agreement Foreign Secretary Hunt says government sees a way to get Brexit deal through Parliament -- by changing backstop Pound slips Prime Minister’s Questions is under way

Want a Brexit Deal? Back My Plan, May Says (12:20 p.m.)

Challenged by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to rule out a no-deal Brexit -- and the damage it would do to business and jobs -- May threw the ball back into his court. She said people’s livelihoods and jobs are now in the "hands" of members of Parliament and it’s up to them to back her deal if they want to avoid crashing out without one.

Defectors Sitting Tall and Proud (12:12 p.m.)

The three Conservative defectors are sat with the eight Labour defectors in the House of Commons behind the Scottish National Party and next to the Northern Irish Democratic Unionists. Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston are flanked by Luciana Berger and Anne Coffey and all are sitting tall and looking proud.

New Group Branded a ‘Blairite-Tory Coalition’ (11:50 a.m.)

Momentum, the grassroots Labour Party movement which supports Corbyn’s brand of socialism, said that by accepting three Conservatives into the group of independent politicians, it had been exposed as “a Blairite-Tory coalition aimed at resurrecting a dead agenda of privatization, deregulation and tax cuts for the super-rich.’’

Despite Tony Blair winning three consecutive terms in office for the Labour Party, the accusation of Blairism highlights the party leadership’s disdain for a centrist agenda. Momentum’s national coordinator Laura Parker called for a series of special elections so voters could decide the future of their members of Parliament.

Three Tories Quit to Join New Party (11:10 a.m.)

Three Conservative members of Parliament -- all outspoken opponents of Brexit -- have quit the party to join a new centrist group.

Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston will join the new Independent Group, which already consists of eight former Labour members.

While dramatic -- and possibly the start of a major fracture in British politics -- in the short-term it probably doesn’t affect the math for getting May’s Brexit deal through Parliament. They were all likely to vote against her anyway.

Hunt Says Government Sees How to Get Deal Through (9:45 a.m.)

Hunt said the government can now see a way to get a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal. A compromise needs to be reached on the Irish backstop that allows Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to change his legal advice about the risks posed to the U.K. by that guarantee.

It needs a "simple, but important change," he said.

“The critical thing is that the British Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, needs to be able to change his advice to parliament that currently says that it’s possible, if not likely, that Britain could be under the current backstop arrangements, trapped in the customs union forever against its will," Hunt said.

He also said he wants to see an "open, optimistic" Brexit deal, and one that the 48 percent who didn’t vote to leave the bloc can live with.

Hunt Urges EU to Avoid No-Deal (9:30 a.m.)

Hunt calls on EU leaders to show "generous" and "far-sighted leadership to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

In a wide-ranging speech, in which he also spoke some German, Hunt has said it would be “an enormous mistake” for the EU to turn inwards as introspection potentially provides an opportunity for Europe’s adversaries.

“We mustn’t allow Brexit to be all consuming,” Hunt said in a speech on Anglo-German relations in Berlin. “And that means an orderly departure from the EU is of paramount importance.”

Earlier:

Britain Targets Brexit Deal Within Days as May Heads to Brussels Three Conservative MPs Are Said to Plan to Quit Party WednesdayHonda May Signal Broader Asia Inc. Exodus as Brexit Fears Bite