Tory Brexit supporters alarmed by the prospect of a delay have hinted they could be won over in the coming weeks – if Theresa May can produce a serious concession from Brussels on the Irish backstop.

The numbers may not be enough for May to win support for her deal, given continued opposition from a hardcore of Brexiters who also object to the £39bn financial settlement, those with personal grudges against the prime minister and Tory remainers hoping for a second referendum.

However, some Brexiter MPs or those in seats which voted leave have suggested in recent days that there is a path to win their support.

No-deal Brexit would mean hard Irish border, EU confirms Read more

“There are clearly forces at work to block and frustrate Brexit and the most important thing, whether it’s good deal, no deal or whatever, is that we leave,” said Ben Bradley, the MP for Mansfield.

“The public and leave voters will accept nothing less and that means that, yes, I will vote for a revised deal that doesn’t include a permanent backstop because, whilst I still have issues with it, those issues are then temporary and our leaving on 29 March is absolutely secured.”

It came as George Osborne, the former chancellor, told the BBC in Davos that delaying the UK’s exit from the EU was now the “most likely” option.

Osborne compared no deal to Russian roulette, saying the prospect of Britain crashing out of the bloc means “the gun is held to the British economy’s head”.

“I think at the moment delay looks like the most likely option because at least that gives some space to explore whether there’s an alternative deal on the table. I doubt there is, but that’s worth exploring, or whether we need to resolve this through a referendum.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the hardline Brexiter chair of the European Research

Group of MPs, will say in a speech on Wednesday that the backstop remains the one absolute obstacle to his faction’s support and that he has been encouraged by signs of movement both from the UK government and other European leaders.

“There are outbreaks of realism all around I see,” he will say. “All along we have been asking merely for the possible, not the impossible. And late in the day as the EU has inevitably left it, I’m sure common sense and practicality will now prevail.”



Rees-Mogg will suggest that the support of the DUP for a revised deal will be critical. “The backstop doesn’t work for unionists in the Tory party, or the DUP. The pretence that we might ever swallow it is now over,” he will say. “It’s long past time to get on and just do the feasible deal that has always been there to do.”

The Tory backbencher Andrew Murrison tabled an amendment to next Tuesday’s Brexit motion that insists on an expiry date to the backstop in the hope that it could allow MPs such as Bradley to demonstrate the level of parliamentary concern to both Downing Street and the EU.

Downing Street said it would not comment on whether it would support Murrison’s amendment until it knew whether it had been selected by the Speaker for debate. No 10 is sympathetic in principle but it is not certain whether the EU would be antagonised by MPs demanding a time limit to the unpopular backstop.

Giles Watling, the MP for the former Ukip seat of Clacton, said he would look again at the deal when it came back to the House of Commons. “I want to back this deal; so many of our colleagues do,” he said. “I voted against it because that if we are going to go through all this uncertainty, then we need to get this right.

“It’s not perfect, but people are beginning to coalesce around it and I think the prime minister’s hand has been strengthened in a way by such a heavy defeat. She is bound to go back to Brussels and say: ‘Look, make these changes or it’s no deal.’ That’s one reason why no deal must not come off the table.”

Another MP who voted against May’s deal is hoping the prime minister can secure some change to win over her confidence and supply partners in the Democratic Unionist party, saying: “The key for most of us is the DUP. As long as they come round, that will be enough for me.”

Taking no deal off the table would leave us at the EU’s mercy | Peter Lilley Read more

Nadine Dorries, one of the most fervent Brexiters in the Tory party, said MPs’ minds had been focused by the efforts of remainers.

“I can feel a growing consensus among a number of MPs, faced with these Europhile kamikaze MPs who really don’t care about their careers going up in flames, who want to overturn parliamentary tradition in order to stop Brexit,” she told Newsnight on Monday. “I think many people are now realising that we would support this deal to get it over the line because every day here is a dangerous day at the moment.”

Other Brexiter sources warned there were a hardcore of MPs, especially those who had resigned from the government, who would be far less easily moved. “For MPs like Boris Johnson or Dominic Raab, it is a very personal opposition to the deal and to the prime minister,” one source said. “For a lot of MPs, the support of the DUP will be enough but I still don’t know if that gets her over the line.”

Downing Street indicated that Tory MPs would be whipped to oppose the amendment tabled by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, which would pave the way for a bill to mandate an extension of article 50 in the event of no deal. The prime minister’s spokesman said it would “simply delay the point of decision”.

But Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, is understood to have told May that some ministers could resign if they were not permitted to back efforts to stop a no-deal Brexit.

The defence minister, Tobias Ellwood, and the business minister, Richard Harrington, have publicly said they are in favour of an extension to article 50, rather than allow the UK to drift towards a no-deal exit with no parliamentary consensus on the horizon.

One pro-Brexit MP, Daniel Kawczynski, who is of Polish descent, said he had formally written to the Polish government asking it to block any extension. “Any attempts by Remainer MPs to delay or obstruct #Brexit must be opposed,” he tweeted.