Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy refused to back the government’s timetable to trigger Brexit negotiations in March next year.

Ms Creasy was one of 89 MPs to oppose a motion to enact Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and begin talks on Britain’s future relationship with the EU in a vote last night (Wednesday, December 7).

She was joined by 22 Labour other members in refusing to support the motion, including Ilford South MP Mike Gapes and Tottenham MP David Lammy.

Chingford and Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith, Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing and Leyton and Wanstead MP John Cryer, who all backed Brexit, voted in favour of the timetable.

Conservative Mr Duncan Smith said the vote was an "historic moment" and had called Labour's bluff.

He said: "They have had their bluff called, I suppose. They have had to vote to give us a date, so that is a real blank cheque for the Government.

"That means that no matter what happens now in Parliament, Labour is signed up to the principle that by the March 31 next year the Government will have been able to invoke Article 50.”

MPs also backed a Labour-proposed motion for Parliament to “properly scrutinise” the government’s plans for leaving the European Union by a 448 votes to 75.

The government plans to take Britain out of the EU by 2019 after 52 per cent of voters backed leaving the union in a referendum in June.