Parliament votes to reject calls to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit

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• Members of Parliament vote to reject calls by the more than 5 million people who signed a petition to revoke Article 50.
• Both Theresa May's government and the opposition Labour party refused to back the motion.
• The petition broke the record for the largest number of people to back a position on Parliament's petitions website.

LONDON - The House of Commons has voted to reject calls to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit after more than 5.8 million people signed a petition calling for Britain's exit from the EU to be reversed.

Members of Parliament voted by 184 to 293 against a motion brought forward by the Scottish National Party to make revoking Article 50 the "default" position if the Commons fails to ratify a deal.

May's government responded formally to reject the petition to revoke Article 50 on Tuesday.

"Revoking Article 50, and thereby remaining in the European Union, would undermine both our democracy and the trust that millions of voters have placed in government," a spokesperson for the Department for Exiting the European Union said in a statement emailed to those who had signed the petition.

The opposition Labour party also rejected the calls to revoke Article 50.

A spokesperson for Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Wednesday that "we don't support that outcome [of revoking Article 50]. We don't believe it's necessary."

The result came after MPs voted on a series of "indicative votes" on Brexit. Other options put to the vote included leaving the EU without a deal, holding a second referendum and remaining in the Customs Union. None commanded a majority.

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