An anti-Brexit demonstrator waves flags outside the Houses of Parliament, in London, Britain, September 10, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

LONDON (Reuters) - A British lawmaker in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party has said that it is delusional to think that the eurosceptic wing of her party will back her proposals for leaving the European Union, The Telegraph newspaper reported.

Mike Penning, a former minister who backed May’s campaign for the party leadership in 2016, said in an interview published on Thursday that the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan, known as Chequers, was “dead as a dodo”.

“Whoever is advising her that she can get Chequers through parliament is deluded,” Penning, who voted for Brexit, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

His attack on Chequers came after May spent Wednesday night appealing directly to fellow European Union leaders to drop “unacceptable” Brexit demands that she said could rip Britain apart, urging the bloc to respond in kind to her “serious and workable” plan.