Jacob Rees-Mogg has told Theresa May she must use the nuclear option of ending the parliamentary session early if a bid by MPs to delay Brexit looks likely to succeed.

The leading Brexiteer said the Prime Minister should prorogue Parliament if a plan being led by Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, to extend Article 50 gets close to becoming law.

Prorogation would mean the end of the parliamentary session and therefore all draft laws currently making their way through the Commons and Lords would fall.

Ms Cooper has tabled a draft bill which would force the Government to delay Brexit by nine months beyond March 29 if no deal has been agreed by February 26.

Mr Rees-Mogg said the Government would have to stop the passage of such a bill and that it would have to use any and all constitutional methods to do so.

He said: “If no deal were taken off the table her majesty’s government would have had to have connived in doing it.

“It cannot be done if the Government is determined to stop it. I referred to extraordinary constitutional situations.