One of the MPs Boris Johnson kicked out of the Conservative Party has called for a fresh referendum as the best way out of the Brexit crisis.

Antoinette Sandbach has previously opposed a Final Say vote – but now she has said she believes it is a better way forward than a general election.

“I think there should be a second referendum,” said Ms Sandbach, who was among the 21 rebels expelled for paving the way for legislation to block a no-deal Brexit.

“If it is clear it’s no deal, then the extension should be given for a second referendum and that outcome will then be a decision for the British people – and that’s where the mandate will come from.”

The prime minister is under growing pressure to smooth a way back for the rebels, who include heavyweights Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond, David Gauke and Sir Nicholas Soames.

But Ms Sandbach said she would think long and hard about whether to accept an offer to return, suggesting Mr Johnson was turning into Nigel Farage.

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“I would very much like for my association to readopt me as candidate and I don’t know whether or not that will happen,” the MP for Eddisbury, in Cheshire, said.

She would also need “to consider whether or not the Conservative Party is now turning into the Brexit Party” and whether or not she would be happy to stand as a Conservative.

About 1.3 million people have signed The Independent’s Final Say petition to give the public the right to decide the Brexit outcome.

Mr Johnson – like Theresa May before him – has insisted he will not go down that route, but some colleagues believe he might yet view it as an escape route.

They fear the Tories will be destroyed by the Brexit Party if forced to hold an election after Brexit has been delayed beyond 31 October, as now seems certain.

Yet Mr Johnson’s only other alternatives are to break the law, or to resign to hand another prime minister the poisoned chalice.

He has vowed to lie “dead in a ditch” before seeking an extension to Article 50 as a law to be passed on Monday will force him to do if parliament has not approved a deal by 19 October.

Once this deadline has passed, Mr Johnson must ask the EU to extend the UK’s departure date to 31 January, or another date, if both Brussels and parliament agree.

MPs fighting a no-deal Brexit are lining up a legal team to prepare to go to court to compel Mr Johnson to seek a Brexit delay, if he refuses.