As Theresa May embarks on her tour to sell the Brexit divorce deal across the UK, a wall of opposition looms ahead.

Fresh from yet another bruising encounter in the Commons yesterday, the prime minister's team learned that Donald Trump had declared the agreement "sounds like a great deal for the EU" and that the UK "may not be able to trade with us".

The blast was apparently unexpected, and damaging not just on its own, but because his comments chime exactly with the concerns of Mrs May's critics who roundly attacked her again yesterday about her assertion that Britain can still sign global trade deals.

Image: Sir Michael Fallon told the PM to listen to Donald Trump

The reaction to his comments suggests the rebellion in Mrs May's own party seems to be hardening over time, rather than softening as she embarks on her frantic sales pitch.

Sir Michael Fallon, her former defence secretary, who was once the go-to cabinet minister when Number 10 needed a voice to bat for Mrs May on the airwaves, rubbed salt in the wound by agreeing with the US president.


In a blistering interview, Sir Michael - who has been publicly silent on the subject of Brexit since he was forced to quit his post over sexual impropriety a year ago - declared the deal to be "doomed" in the House of Commons and said he would not vote for it.

"My fear is that this deal gives us the worst of all worlds. No guarantee of smooth trade in the future and no ability to reduce the tariffs that we need to conclude trade deals with the rest of the world," he told BBC Radio 4.

Image: Leave campaigners are ramping up the pressure on Mrs May

He warned the government against dismissing Donald Trump's warning, saying: "It's no use us just brushing that off, saying 'no, no we can do a deal with America', he's the president of the United States, and if he says it's going to be difficult, then it certainly looks like it's going to be difficult.

"This is not a good deal and we need a better deal.

"If it's possible to get a better deal, to send the negotiators back to Brussels for two or three months, to postpone the actual leaving date for two or three months, I still think that in the long term that would be in the best interest of the country. We have to get this right."

Image: Number 10's defence may end up falling on deaf ears

Sir Michael backed Remain in the referendum, in what was widely seen as a sign of his loyalty to then-prime minister David Cameron.

An influential figure on the backbenches, loyal to the party and regarded as not dogmatic about Europe, he was widely expected to back the deal.

Mrs May is on a frantic tour of the UK, delivering her message that MPs must understand that there is no other deal on the table and that voting down her deal would risk a chaotic crash exit without one.

Number 10 hit back at Mr Trump's comments in a statement saying the 26-page political declaration "is very clear we will have an independent trade policy so that the UK can sign trade deals with countries around the world" once the transition period is over.

It added that a working group scoping out an "ambitious" trade deal with the US has met five times already.

Their defence will fall on many deaf ears. Critics fear that without any divergence from EU rules while we remain in a customs union - which many suspect will take years to exit from - the promise of trade deals cannot be guaranteed.

Sir Michael, the sort of MP the whips were relying on to fall into line, suggests the pool of support for the deal is even shallower than previously thought.