The home secretary, Sajid Javid, is prepared to take Britain out of the EU without a deal if he becomes prime minister and fails to get concessions from Brussels.

The Tory leadership hopeful has ruled out a second referendum, a general election, and revoking article 50, instead promising to leave the EU on 31 October – with or without a deal.

Writing in the Daily Mail, he said: “The voters have been asked their opinion more than enough times. Never in this country’s history have we asked people to go to the polls a second time without implementing their verdict from the first.

“Another vote before we leave would be disastrous for trust in politics, and cause the kind of chaos that risks handing Jeremy Corbyn and his hard-left supporters the keys to No 10.”

Javid, who is one of a dozen Conservatives hoping to become the next prime minister, set out a five-point plan to get the UK out of the EU.

Quick Guide Tory leadership contenders Show Jeremy Hunt His style is notably technocratic, with few rhetorical flourishes and an emphasis on his consensual approach and long record as a minister, notably during more than five years as health secretary, a traditional graveyard of ministerial careers. Hunt’s attempts to talk up a backstory as an 'underestimated' entrepreneur can fall flat given he is also the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse. Overall, Hunt’s approach can seem uninspiring and hard to pin down in terms of core beliefs, hence the 'Theresa in trousers' nickname among some Tory MPs – one that is more catchy than accurate (since May herself often wears trousers). In the final round of MP voting Hunt edged out Michael Gove, 77 votes to 75. Boris Johnson Johnson’s progress to Downing Street appeared unstoppable even before an overwhelming victory in the first round of voting among MPs. Most of his colleagues believe it is now all but inevitable that he will be Britain’s next prime minister. His well-disciplined campaign team will continue with their strategy of subjecting him to minimal media exposure, though once the field is narrowed down to two, the final pair will appear in more than a dozen head-to-head hustings for Tory members. The team’s main aim is simply to keep heads down and avoid Johnson creating headlines for the wrong reasons. It may not have worked. Johnson came first in the final round of MP voting with 160 votes.



He said he would prepare for a no-deal Brexit with an emergency budget, which he noted would show the EU “we are ready – so when we turn up to negotiate, they know we are not afraid of walking out”. He said he did not want to leave the EU without a deal, but “we have to accept the reality of our situation”.

The home secretary said he planned to get his deal through parliament with a Northern Ireland backstop that included a time limit or exit clause, and vowed to work closely with Ireland to ensure there was a frictionless border.

“What’s currently missing is trust in our ability and determination to deliver that. That requires two things. Someone who could work with them constructively, building a strong relationship of personal trust. And a credible solution,” he wrote.

Javid added that he had tasked a team from Border Force to look into this issue at the Home Office which, he said, insisted the technologies already existed to avoid a hard border.

The 49-year-old is up against other contenders including Boris Johnson, Rory Stewart and Michael Gove to replace Theresa May. On Friday, the former immigration minister Mark Harper became the 12th MP to enter the race.

The Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan said the number of candidates in the leadership race was becoming “a bit silly”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is a very, very serious moment where we are choosing our next prime minister at the most difficult political time, so anyone who is a candidate has to go straight from wherever they are through the door of No 10.” He said the list needed to be thinned out, as “serious debate” was being crowded out.

Javid also pledged to hire 20,000 extra police officers if elected prime minister, promising to spend £1bn over three years to put “police on the beat” and end a “culture of impunity” among criminals.