French MPs have voted to bring down the government in a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron.

The vote took place after Left and Right-wing opposition parties refused to back the Budget put forward by Michel Barnier, the prime minister.

What happened in the vote?

France’s government has fallen after MPs voted to bring down Michel Barnier, the French prime minister, plunging the country into political uncertainty.

Mr Barnier will go down as the shortest-serving prime minister in French history after he was appointed by Emmanuel Macron in September following July’s snap election.

Why did MPs vote him out?

Mr Barnier was voted out because of a controversial social security Budget aimed at saving the equivalent of £50 billion a year.

As parliamentarians opposed it, Mr Barnier said it would be passed by presidential decree, causing outrage.

More generally, Mr Barnier, who is not an elected MP, was seen as a puppet for the deeply unpopular Mr Macron.