A HAMPSHIRE MP says he voted against the "completely inadequate" Brexit deal proposed by Theresa May.

Mrs May is battling on two fronts as the Prime Minister fights to retain her grip on power while attempting to find a Brexit compromise that could command majority support in the Commons.

Mrs May faces a vote of no confidence today after suffering a massive parliamentary defeat over her controversial EU withdrawal agenda.

Labour launched a bid to oust the Government after Mrs May's Withdrawal Agreement was overwhelmingly rejected by 432 votes to 202.

Despite the humiliating defeat, Government sources remained optimistic about seeing off the Labour challenge after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and leading figures from the Brexiteer and Pro-Europe wings of the Tory party said they would back the PM.

Alan Whitehead said the deal was "completely unacceptable" in terms trading relations with the EU and customs union and the single market.

Mr Whitehead now says the next option could be to "bypass" the Prime Minister.

Speaking to the Echo, he said: "Parliament needs to take control of the legislative process. Parliament needs to be able to say even if the government says it wants to do things this particular way – Parliament has to say no.

"It's in the greater interest of the country or we are going to have to make sure that happens."

"The whole business of spending two years not making progress then not talking to anybody other than a few people while the process was being set up has got us to where we are now."

He added that there is "quite a strong groundswell" for a second referendum - but that MPs "need to sit down and talk about it."

After suffering the the biggest government defeat on a meaningful vote for at least a century, which saw 118 Tory MPs rebel, opponents of the PM's Brexit stance insisted Downing Street must now show real movement.

Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith also voted against the deal because the arrangements for the Northern Ireland backstop.

And he said that yesterday's commons vote was "a sad day."

Speaking to the Echo he said: "I've never rebelled before.

"I was in there with people I have nothing in common with.

Insisting he would never vote for a second referendum, he said: "The EU is something and it's nothing. What I do care about is it's taken us 800 years to get here. We have freedom - and we have had democracy for so long."

"I don't have to agree with everything Theresa May does but she's in there and I'm not. It seems very much that they have said this is the deal - I think she was browbeaten."

He added that he wouldn't be for an extension to Article 50 - which would delay the March 29 EU exit date - and that we should "get on with it."

Theresa May now has three working days to bring in a motion, which she will do on Monday.

Calls for Article 50 to be extended, meaning the UK remains in the EU longer, also intensified among pro-Europeans.

Mrs May signalled she hoped to find "genuinely negotiable" solutions that she can hammer out with Brussels after the defeat.

However, French president Emmanuel Macron made it clear a renegotiation of the Brexit deal was unlikely.

Speaking after the Commons vote, he said: "I don't really believe in this, because we already went as far as we could."

He told British leaders to "figure it out yourselves" as he wished them "good luck" as he predicted that Britain would ask for more time to hold talks.

The comments came as it emerged Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark used a private telephone call to tell business chiefs not to expect changes to the legal Brexit withdrawal text, but rather to the political declaration on future relations with the EU, according to Government sources.

The Financial Times, meanwhile, reported Mr Hammond told those on the call the Government would not put any "obstacles" in the way of a plan by Tory MP Nick Boles to give senior backbenchers a role in finding a solution to the deadlock.

"We have to reach out to MPs in the Commons first," the Chancellor is reported to have said. "There is a large majority in the Commons that is opposed to no-deal."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted he was tabling the no confidence motion in the Government because Mrs May's "catastrophic" Brexit defeat represented an "absolutely decisive" verdict by MPs on the Prime Minister's handling of EU withdrawal.

But, Mr Corbyn's hopes of forcing an early general election were dampened as the DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said his party would back Mrs May.

He told BBC2's Newsnight: "We will be supporting the Government in the no confidence motion.

"What it really shows is when it comes to the crunch and the Government's survival is on the line the DUP will be able to keep the Government in power."

Asked if Labour could win Wednesday's no confidence vote, shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner told the BBC: "I think the numbers are probably not there tomorrow. We will hope that we can."

Mr Gardiner refused to be drawn on reports that up to 100 Labour MPs were set to call on Mr Corbyn to pivot towards a second Brexit referendum on Wednesday.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who had cancelled travel plans in order to be in Brussels for the aftermath of the vote on Wednesday, voiced "regret" at the defeat of what he termed "the best possible deal".

He said the Commons vote "increased the risk of a disorderly withdrawal" from the EU.

Mr Juncker said: "I urge the United Kingdom to clarify its intentions as soon as possible."