MPs should be allowed to halt Brexit with a free vote in the House of Commons, Sir John Major said yesterday.

The former Tory Prime Minister urged MPs from all parties to listen to their constituents and if necessary ignore their party manifestos by stopping Brexit or changing its terms.

Sir John also held out the possibility of a second referendum to halt Brexit in its tracks in a speech in central London.

The comments from Sir John sparked a furious reaction from Eurosceptics who accused him of hypocrisy because Sir John had refused to grant a free vote on enshrining the Maastricht Treaty in UK law when he was Prime Minister in the 1990s.