Boris Johnson has demanded Theresa May goes back to Brussels to renegotiate her Brexit deal.
Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson who resigned over Mrs May’s Brexit approach, called for MPs to vote down the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement in the Commons on Tuesday.
The Tory backbencher, who has refused to deny claims he is gunning for Mrs May’s job, called for the Prime Minister to “finally show some steel and determination” and take the deal back to EU leaders.
Writing in his Daily Telegraph column on Monday, Mr Johnson said: “We don’t want the appalling constraints of the Irish backstop.
“With their instinctive feeling for the realities of power, MPs can see how the backstop works as a trap – forcing us to choose between the effective break-up of the Union with Northern Ireland and the wholesale subjection of the UK to Brussels.
“So when tomorrow night many MPs vote – as I devoutly hope they will – to protect our democracy and our union by throwing out this deal, a huge proportion will justifiably cite the backstop as the reason for their decision.”
He continued: “We need to go back to Brussels and do what they have been expecting all along – and that is finally show some steel and determination.
“We are told that the EU does not even like the backstop. Well, if the EU doesn’t like it, and the UK government doesn’t like it, and the British people don’t like it, why on earth is it there? Let us get rid of it and move on.”
If Mrs May loses the vote on Tuesday, renegotiating the deal’s terms with EU leaders is one of the options she could choose. The Prime Minister is set to head to Brussels on Thursday for the European Council summit where she could seek concessions.
Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan claimed his Tory colleagues lining up to oppose Mrs May's Brexit deal had not "thought strategically enough about what the consequences of that would be".
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"The first is that even if they overturn it they are not necessarily going to get an alternative which they are campaigning for, and instead what they will probably do is set in train a course of events which could lead to chaos in many, many areas," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He warned there could be a leadership contest, or a general election, and said the UK could be "top dog in Europe at the moment when France is burning and Germany is in transition" but instead "we're just beating ourselves up".
Sir Alan also said Tory former foreign secretary Boris Johnson would be "met with a very, very loud raspberry in many, many different languages" if he walked into a negotiating room in Brussels.
And he warned: "Let's be absolutely clear that if this goes pear-shaped in the way that it really could on the back of people opposing the deal that is on offer tomorrow night, the wreckers in history will forever be known as the wreckers."
Mrs Johnson’s latest intervention came after he used an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show to claim the EU would use the Irish backstop issue to “blackmail” the UK. He also said half of the £39 billion divorce bill should be withheld until a free trade deal is agreed.
