Local MP Amber Rudd has written an open letter to her constituents assuring them that she is, “…working to find a Brexit that can command a majority in Parliament and protects jobs, businesses and opportunities in Hastings and Rye.”

Ms Rudd issued the letter this afternoon following the government’s crushing and historic defeat in the House of Commons last night on the EU Withdrawal Agreement.

She says: “Yesterday it was right to support the Prime Minister with the Withdrawal Agreement vote. I was disappointed by the outcome. This was an agreement to leave the European Union (EU) which had been negotiated over a two year period and which I believe delivered on the key aims that we have as a country to leave the EU while maintaining close economic and security alignment with them.”

The letter goes on the explain how the Prime Minister Theresa May has set out plans to ‘engage’ with what MsRudd describes as other ‘senior parliamentarians’ to find where there is the potential to devise a plan that would find a majority in parliament.

“In Hastings and Rye I know my constituents have different opinions on this, I have received many letters and emails urging me to take very contrary paths in this ongoing negotiation and series of votes,” says Ms Rudd, “It is my view that the best outcome remains leaving the EU on the most constructive terms possible, staying close for the economy and security,” she adds.

In the letter she tells constituents the worst possible outcome, in her view, would be the election of a Labour government under Jeremy Corbin and she has pledged to back the Prime Minister in the vote of confidence that will take place later this evening.

But this evening the issue as divisive as ever with Tim Davies writing in response to the MP: “…it’s time to stop trying to sabotage and seek common ground with others and accept the result. It is time all MPs got out of their trenches and stopped lobbing grenades at each other, it doesn’t need to be put to the people again.

“Calling it off, delaying it or trying to overturn it is just not acceptable, try to represent what your constituents voted for, you chose remain and it wasn’t voted for, you have a chance to shine and maybe remaining as an MP might be an option.”

Meanwhile Neil Mather writes: “We need a people’s vote now, we know what a mess Brexit actually is, rather than the hopeless promises made at the time. As Rees-Mogg said at the time of the referendum, ‘…we could have two referendums. …it might make more sense to have the second referendum after the renegotiation is completed,'”.