Leading Conservative Eurosceptics have formed a new lobby group to push for a hard Brexit, including leaving the European single market and ending free movement.

The campaign, Leave Means Leave, could provoke fresh unrest on the Tory backbenches for Theresa May, pushing her government to take a no compromise approach to negotiations with the EU.

Leading Tory MPs form the political advisory board, including those pushed out of government by the prime minister such as the former justice minister Dominic Raab. Others include the former environment secretary Owen Paterson, Sir Gerald Howarth, the former defence minister, and the outspoken Eurosceptic Peter Bone.

The property tycoon Richard Tice will chair the group, which has set up headquarters in Westminster. In a report published on Sunday it says Britain must “leave the world’s least successful economic zone – the single market”.

The group recommends that if no deal can be done the UK should leave the EU without a trade deal and rely on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules while free trade deals are negotiated with other countries.

The Labour donor John Mills, who spearheaded the Labour Leave campaign, is listed as a supporter of the group.



Tice said: “On 23 June the British people made it clear that they wanted to leave the EU. There should be no compromise on this. The sooner we leave the more certainty and confidence for everyone. It should be a maximum of two years post serving article 50.

“Non-EU countries will know when we can sign trade deals and the EU will know we are serious. Also consumers and businesses can draw confidence that we are a globally focused strong economy. Let’s be clear: no deal is better than a bad deal.”

In its launch report, the group says remaining in the single market is the “‘no say, low growth, regulatory burden, sovereignty illusion’ option locking in perpetual trade deficits”.

The report warns that remaining in the single market “will continue to pull our political and economic focus towards the world’s least successful economic zone while tying us down with needless and expensive regulation for all businesses, even if they do not export”.

May has so far refused to reveal the government’s position on remaining in the single market, though the Brexit secretary, David Davis, told the House of Commons last week it was a “simple truth is that if a requirement of membership is giving up control of our borders, I think that makes it very improbable”.

A senior Downing Street official sought to distance May from the statement, saying: “He is setting out his view that [single market membership] is improbable.”

WTO rules would mean high tariffs on key British exports, including a 10% tariff on car exports, 12% on clothing and 40% on lamb.

The former education secretary Nicky Morgan said the rise of campaign groups such as Leave Means Leave was a result of a lack of information provided by ministers on the particulars of a Brexit deal.



Appearing on ITV’s Peston on Sunday show, Morgan criticised the “tightly controlled” messaging coming out of Downing Street.



“It is time to flesh out some of the issues, especially Brexit,” said Morgan. “If you leave a vacuum, other people will fill it. The time is now to say this is what we want to get out of Brexit.”



The Tory MP Anna Soubry, speaking on behalf of Open Britain, the successor to Stronger In, said the leave campaigners who wanted to exit the EU without a trade deal were “the biggest threat our economy faces”.

“This would mean new tariffs on nine out of 10 goods we sell to the EU, including 10% on cars,” she said. “This would decimate our national industries and cost jobs. Working people will hope No 10 rejects this approach and instead seeks membership of the single market, which is vital for jobs and growth.”

The Ukip donor Arron Banks is expected to launch a grassroots pressure group to push for a hard Brexit, inspired by Momentum, the Labour-supporting movement that backs Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, said Momentum was a key inspiration. “I think that is exactly what Arron Banks is going to do,” he told BBC1’s Andrew Marr show. “He built this movement, Leave.EU, which has a million online supporters. That’s exactly what he intends to do.

“There are some big examples of this – the Five Star movement in Italy is a completely online political party and it’s now at 30% in the polls. There is a new kind of politics out there that could be very effective.”

Farage hinted he saw his future in grassroots organising and in his remaining tenure as an MEP rather than “meddling” with the party’s new leadership. “I am going to go on as an MEP, I lead a group at the European parliament so I am going to go on with my helpful contributions there,” he said.

“But we have a new leader, Diane James, and I’m going to let her get on with it. I am not going to meddle at all.”