UK Conservative MP Anna Soubry has apologised to the Irish people for the actions of her party and government in the Brexit debacle.

Anna Soubry has said she is “acutely appalled” at the no confidence vote in prime minister Theresa May.

May will face a vote of confidence in her leadership on Wednesday evening after more than 48 of her MPs wrote to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee calling for a challenge.

Ms May will address Conservative MPs at 5pm and voting will take place in a secret ballot between 6pm and 8pm, with a result expected before 10pm.

In a statement outside Number 10 on Wednesday morning, Ms May said: “I will contest that vote with everything I’ve got.”

A planned trip to Dublin to meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been cancelled, with Ms May instead remaining in London “to make the case for my leadership with my parliamentary colleagues”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Ms Soubry said:

“I can only apologise to your listeners for what my country and my party has been doing for the last few years. Not even the Conservative party could be so politically irresponsible at this critical stage with the most important decision since the end of World War 2.”

The no confidence vote is coming from a group of far right Brexiteers who have “blighted the Conservative party for decades,” she added.

It was a shame that they could not be seen off, the party is now reaping the consequences of that, Ms Soubry said.

Theresa May “has got to bring this blasted vote back to the House of Commons” and has to have “a people’s vote, to take this mess back to the British people.”

It is “the most irresponsible thing to do to change leader” at this time, she said.

“It won’t make Brexit go away.”

There is a danger that the Conservative party could end up with Boris Johnson as leader, she warned.

“These wretched people can’t face up to Brexit reality.”

Ms Soubry said she did not have a problem being a rule taker not a rule maker within the EU “if that is the price we have to pay for peace and British business.”

She described the signatories of the letter calling for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May as being like children. “They can’t get their own way, so they stamp their feet. They need to grow up.

“Let the British people vote. I hope they see sense and that the best deal is the current deal with the EU.”