BLOOMBERG/GETTY Lord Tebbit suggested David Cameron should resign if the country votes to leave the EU

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Tory grandee Lord Tebbit suggested Mr Cameron should resign if the country votes to leave the EU. The former Cabinet minister said it would be "very difficult" for the prime minister to be in charge of Brexit negotiations with the other EU countries having campaigned to retain ties with Brussels. The veteran politician also condemned the "silliness" from Mr Cameron and fellow senior Tories over their warnings that a vote to leave the EU would represent a "leap in the dark".

I think he would find it extraordinarily difficult to suddenly change sides again Lord Tebbit

Suggesting the prime minister "probably should" stand down if he is defeated in the referendum, Lord Tebbit said: "It would be very difficult for him to negotiate for all those things that we need to get settled with our European partners having said that it would be a disaster if we did leave." He told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "What I am saying is that I think he would find it extraordinarily difficult to suddenly change sides again, from a man who was willing to leave and take a leap into the dark unless he got what he wanted, and he came back with a piece of paper and said that this was what he wanted.

"Now to say 'that's what I wanted but the country doesn't want it, so now I'm going to go over to the side of my country'. "I think that would be an extremely difficult thing for him to do." Hitting out at the tactics adopted by Mr Cameron and the Remain camp, he said: "There's a great deal of silliness in all this 'leap in the dark' stuff", adding that there were risks to voting to remain. "We don't know what's going to happen if we are there, chained in to the European Union as the euro collapses."

BLOOMBERG Lord Tebbit said it would be difficult for the prime minister to lead Brexit negotiations

PA Dr Liam Fox said constitutionally David Cameron could stay in Downing Street

Former defence secretary Dr Liam Fox also rubbished claims that a vote to leave the EU would be a leap in the dark. He said: "If we leave the EU the next day we will still have a permanent seat on the Security Council of the UN. We will still be at the heart of the Commonwealth, we will still be one of the world's top 10 economies. We will still have the world's fifth biggest defence budget, we will still be members of the G7 and the G20, we will still be one of the key players in Nato with a special relationship with the United States. "This is no isolation. This is no leap in the dark."

The pros and cons of Brexit Fri, February 26, 2016 The pros and cons of Brexit. Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 12 Pros and cons of Brexit

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme the sour tone of the referendum debate risked making it harder for Conservative Party MPs to unite again after the vote. Asked if Mr Cameron could cling on in No 10 after a Brexit vote, he replied: "Yes... constitutionally." He said: "The Conservative Party is in a position where we will have to come back together to govern the country after June 24. "And the difficulty we will face is that if the arguments have been ramped up too much in that initial period that will become harder for us. "How easy or how hard it is for us to come together and govern this country as a majority party is largely dependent on how well we treat one another, and the respect with which we treat one another, in the run up to the referendum."

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