Theresa May will continue efforts to win over Tory critics of her Brexit deal as MPs return to Westminster, but both wings of the party have said the plan is unlikely to receive support.

Sir John Redwood, the newly knighted Tory Brexiter, once again said he would not support the deal, saying there were “huge agendas of opportunity” if the UK left the bloc.

Theresa May accused of Brexit deal desperation over John Redwood honour Read more

Despite speculation that his being granted a knighthood in the New Year honours was a means for May to secure his support, Redwood maintained on Saturday morning that the UK could enjoy an economic boost by adding the billions promised to the EU to a post-Brexit budget.

Redwood, who has been the MP for Wokingham in Berkshire since 1987, was one of the Eurosceptic cabinet ministers labelled “bastards” by John Major as he fought to ratify the Maastricht treaty in 1993 and has continued to fly the anti-EU banner in the Commons ever since.

“I think many of us in the country just want to move on and talk about something else,” he said in an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday morning. “We want to be out and we know it will work just fine.”

Amid dire predictions by remain supporters over the potential damage a no-deal Brexit could inflict on the country’s economy, people were losing sight of the potential benefits, Redwood said.

“I think getting out is a big economic boost. I want to have a debate about how we are going to spend all the money we are going to have by not paying the £39bn-plus of this agreement, and the continuing large contributions each year,” he said.

He claimed that leaving the EU would allow the UK to look again at “rather penal” import tariffs set by Brussels, encourage more domestic food production, to rebuild the fishing industry, and to control its own laws and borders.

“There are huge agendas of opportunity, which are being crowded out by endless remain propaganda from people who tell us falsehoods about what might happen if we just left.”

Speaking later on the same programme, Ken Clarke, a veteran Tory remain supporter, agreed it was unlikely that May would succeed in gaining parliament’s backing for her deal. But politicians should not stop looking for ways to minimise the damage Brexit could cause to the country, he said.

Despite claiming “the greatest respect” for Redwood, Clarke rubbished the assertion that the economy could enjoy a boost in the event of a no-deal Brexit, arguing that any attempt to renege on the country’s bills to Europe would deeply damage international relations.

“If we were to repudiate all the financial obligations that we have had from the past then that will merely mean the tariffs and everything else will come in more quickly,” he said. “The Brexit dividend was always a complete myth. It was known to be a myth by the people who painted it on the bus.”