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Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a series of resignations from her Government on Thursday as she defended her draft Brexit agreement with the European Union. Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab resigned from his position citing concerns over an "indefinite" backstop agreement to avoid a hard Irish border and Nothern Ireland remaining under EU regulations. Defending the Prime Minister’s proposed Brexit agreement, Conservative MP and Justice Minister Rory Stewart apologised after making up a stat live on-air.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: “I think the game that the Brexiteers are playing at the moment is extremely dangerous. “They are not being honest with people about the risks they’re taking and what they are basically doing is radically increasing the risks of us crashing out with no plan and no deal. “That will be catastrophic for our economy and it would create huge divisions within British society. One of the advantages of this deal, to be honest, and one of the reasons 80 percent of the British public support this deal is.” BBC host Emma Barnett stepped in questioning the stat the Conservative MP produced. She said: “How on earth do we know that yet?”

Mr Stewart replied: “Let me back on that. Sorry, let me get the language right on that. “My sense is that if we have an opportunity to explain this, the vast majority of the British public would support this.” The BBC host demanded to know where Mr Stewart’s stat had come from. He replied: “I am producing a number to try to illustrate what I believe which is that the people who are rejecting this are 10 percent on either fringe. “Obviously this is not coming from an opinion poll, I am trying to express the basic fact that this is a country that is in danger of being divided. “We are in danger of almost approaching civil war where we have got one side pretending that we can rejoin the European Union as if the referendum never happened. The other side pretending we should have some hard Brexit where we pretend to be Singapore.

Brexit news: Rory Stewart apologised after inventing a Brexit stat live on-air

How on earth do we know that yet? BBC host Emma Barnett