Theresa May 'running scared' of losing Brexit vote says Plaid Cymru

The prime minister is running scared of losing a Brexit vote in the House of Commons, Plaid Cymru has said.

Theresa May has called off Tuesday's vote on her Brexit deal in the face of a significant potential defeat.

Plaid's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said Ms May is making a no deal "more likely" by putting the vote off.

But Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said the prime minister was right to delay the Brexit deal vote saying MPs support was needed.

In a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday, the prime minister acknowledged that she would have faced a significant defeat on Tuesday.

Ms Saville Roberts said: "The Prime Minister is running scared. She can only delay the inevitable loss. She made promises that she cannot deliver and now she is coming up against reality.

"The only single person who can stop a No Deal Brexit is the Prime Minister. By delaying this vote she is personally making a No Deal Brexit more likely."

She said voters must "be given the right to decide whether the reality of leaving the European Union is what they want".

Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones, who is due to quit on Tuesday, told BBC Wales the "whole thing is a shambles".

"The whole thing is based on the internal politics of the Conservative Party and that's not where we should be," he said.

"We should be looking at what's best for the country. What can you say? Only this morning people were saying there would definitely be a vote tomorrow Tuesday, now we're being told there won't be a vote. We don't know where things are going - the whole thing seems directionless".

Labour and Plaid Cymru MPs were expected to vote down the proposed withdrawal agreement, alongside pro-Brexit Conservative MPs, Conservative MPs who want a second referendum and others from the DUP and the SNP.

"I don't think its a very good advertisement for this government," said David Jones, Conservative MP for Clwyd West.

"But what it does do, looking at it as positively as one can, is that it gives the government now the opportunity to go back to Brussels to say that the withdrawal agreement will not meet with the approval of parliament, and to try to negotiate something batter."

He called for the backstop - an insurance policy to guarantee no hard border on island of Ireland - to be removed and a stronger political declaration on the future relationship, "and to not paying over a penny of the £39bn until such time as we know an agreement is going ahead".

Speaking on Wales Today, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said the prime minister was right to delay the Brexit deal vote.

He said there was a "real sense of concern about the deal" from MPs.

Mr Cairns said: "Clearly those colleagues have legitimate concerns that we can't answer yet and that's why the prime minister wants to travel to meet European leaders of the next few days".

He added: "We have to focus on getting a deal and we have to have Parliament's support for that".