Dozens of hardline Brexiteer MPs are vowing to vote down the Withdrawal Agreement even if it does not include the backstop, after Boris Johnson suggests there will be a transition period.

Mark Francois, the vice chairman of the European Research Group, warned of a "running Parliamentary war probably for at least a month" if Mr Johnson tries to force the agreement through the Commons.

Mr Johnson wants the European Union to agree to remove the 200 page long section covering the Northern Ireland backstop in Mrs May's Withdrawal Agreement to get the deal approved by MPs.

However Mr Francois said that Tory members of the ERG on the backbenches - now understood to be around 60 - would vote down any agreement.

He told today's Chopper's Brexit Podcast: "Even if you took the backstop element out of the bill you are still talking about a very substantial bill.

"You’d have to spend weeks in parliament […] and you’d have weeks and weeks of people like [Dominic] Grieve and [Oliver] Letwin and co. tabling wrecking amendments.

"You’d have a running Parliamentary war probably for at least a month and I don’t think that any sensible government would want that in the run up to 31st October, so in practical terms I don’t think it’s a good idea.”