Prime Minister Theresa May has appeared outside 10 Downing Street to pledge she will contest tonight's parliamentary no confidence vote with everything she have got.

Mrs May, who is Maidenhead's MP, learned last night that the necessary 48 letters from MPs had been received to trigger tonight's vote, which will decide if she remains safely in charge for another year and leads Britain through the Brexit process - or whether a new leader will be chosen to take her place over the next few weeks.

The news that the vote would be held tonight broke at around 7.45 this morning and just over an hour later shortly before 9am Mrs May appeared on television live to tell the public: "I will contest this vote with everything I have got."

She warned: "A change in leadership will put our country's future at risk and create uncertainty when we least need it."

She said a new leadership contest would be a long process, saying: "Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division."

The rushing through of tonight's no confidence vote means that the nation will know by 10pm if Mrs May remains our Prime Minister.