The legacy of no-deal Brexit will be as divisive as that of Margaret Thatcher, Rory Stewart warns More than a dozen MPs have teamed up to form new group, MPs For A Deal

Britain will be left “angry and alienated” if politicians fail to agree a compromise on Brexit, Rory Stewart has warned as MPs launched a new push to secure an exit deal.

The Tory rebel said no-deal would be as divisive as the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, but added that cancelling Brexit altogether would see Leave voters feeling “tricked” by the political class.

Mr Stewart, who was sacked from the Conservatives by Boris Johnson last week, has teamed up with more than a dozen figures from across the parties in MPs For A Deal.

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The group, led by Labour’s Caroline Flint, have pledged to give the Prime Minister time to cut a new deal with Brussels and say that 50 Labour MPs could be ready to back it if Mr Johnson brings it to a vote later this year. That would allow him to bypass Tory hardliners and the DUP and force through a revised version of the existing Withdrawal Agreement.

Leave voters ‘tricked’

The Prime Minister is understood to be working on a plan to revise the Irish backstop proposal to make the current deal acceptable to the bulk of Conservative MPs.

Independent MP Nick Boles predicted Mr Johnson would be willing to compromise in order to cut a deal which takes Britain out of the EU as soon as possible, saying: “He does not care about anything other than power and glory for himself, and if he concludes that the way to stay in 10 Downing Street is to pass a deal, he will do it.”

Mr Stewart said: “If we were to go down a no-deal Brexit, we would end up with about half the country very angry and alienated: they would feel about a no-deal Brexit the way that many of the people I’ve seen recently in the North-East feel about Mrs Thatcher. On the other side, if we went for a full Remain through a second referendum you would have about half the country feeling incredibly alienated, angry and tricked.”

And Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb added: “I suspect that out there, there’s a sort of silent majority of people in this country who want to move on from this nightmare, who recognise that what’s going on is massively damaging to our country. There’s something noble in seeking to find a way out of this mess through compromise.

“We run a real risk of breaking the social contract in this country between the governed and those who govern, and that could have awful, dire consequences in the longer term for us.”

The group is trying to win over other MPs, including Theresa May. Tory MP Victoria Prentis has been in touch with friends of the ex-Prime Minister to convince her to come on board.

Labour MPs who are pushing for a deal hit out at the party leadership for increasingly embracing a pro-Remain position. Kevin Barron said the move by Jeremy Corbyn and allies was “deeply damaging and ill-thought-through”. Emma Lewell-Buck added: “Failure to deliver, either with a deal or without a deal, will lead to the complete erosion of our democracy.”