Former Brexit minister has said that 80 Tory MPs are prepared to vote against the prime minister’s Chequer’s plan.
On Monday, Steve Baker told the BBC that Ms May’s Chequer’s plan may result in a “catastrophic split”, if the Conservatives could not manage to agree on another arrangement.
Downing Street has stated that May’s blueprint on future dealing with the EU was the “only one on the table” which could potentially deliver what Britain wants whilst curbing the hard border with Ireland.
Baker is the ex-chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) which aims to release their own ideas for a Brexit deal.
According to the Press Association, Baker said that the lack of support for May’s plan has caused a “massive problem” within the Conservative party.
“It is absolutely no pleasure whatsoever to me to acknowledge that, but I look at the mood of colleagues and the mood of the Conservative Party in the country and I am gravely concerned for the future of our party.”
“We want to change the policy and we would be delighted to unite behind Theresa May with a different policy.
“The Conservative Party must come together to deliver Brexit behind a policy and the policy we are arguing for is the one the EU has offered us in March.”
Cabinet ministers met at the prime minister’s chequers estate in July and devised the plan.
This plan resulted in some resignations such as the (at the time) Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
The UK is due to leave the EU by March 2019.
