16:36

Mark Francois, the deputy chair of the European Research Group, the Tory caucus pushing for a harder Brexit, has opened the door to a potential vote in favour of a deal that could include an Irish border backstop.

Francois said during a heated debate on the future of Brexit that the ERG would be the first to sign off a deal if it meant a genuine exit from all the institutions of the EU. He said:

It has been sometimes been said that we will vote against anything regardless. That’s not true. If there is some form of deal, be it over the backstop or anything else, then I and my colleagues will look at it and read it very carefully because at the end of the day you are talking about international treaty law. I’ll look at a deal if there is one, but as I think I said my acid test will be, does it mean we genuinely leave the EU? I want nothing more than to see the sun rise on the 1 November on a free country.

Explaining the conditions under which he would consider supporting deal, Francois said:

It rather depends what’s in it. As a so-called Spartan, if it means we genuinely leave the EU, if it means we genuinely leave on Halloween, I will be the first in the Aye lobby.

But if it did not mean that, then he would vote against it, Francois said, “and no amount of brow beating will make me change my mind.”