Plot to oust PM nears tipping point

The campaign to unseat Theresa May neared tipping point yesterday as the Conservatives’ former London mayoral candidate called on the prime minister to resign and a former Brexit minister told how members of the Government were hoodwinked over her deal.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Zac Goldsmith, a Brexiteer, says he would have voted Remain rather than choose May’s plan and that her departure will ‘‘give us the chance of a fresh start’’.

The newspaper was separately told that Sir Bill Cash, the veteran Eurosceptic, had also submitted a formal declaration of no confidence in the prime minister.

He declined to comment, saying the process was confidential. But the additional two MPs would bring to 25 the total known to have requested a vote on May’s leadership, out of a total of 48 required.

And Suella Braverman, who quit the Brexit Department along with her boss, Dominic Raab, last week, reveals that the draft Withdrawal Agreement issued by Downing Street contains clauses the pair had never previously seen and says the document will be seen for generations as a betrayal.

‘‘It has been forged, not by those who have a political pulse, but by those who are risk-averse, pro-Remain and do not want Brexit to happen,’’ she writes in The Sunday Telegraph.

In other developments, senior Tories were in talks with opposition parties over a potential emergency motion for a Norwaystyle Brexit, saying they could draw on support from up to 70 Labour MPs if May’s deal was blocked by the Commons.

And Brandon Lewis, the Conservative chairman, was accused of peddling ‘‘nonsense’’ to hundreds of Tory association chairmen about the exit mechanism Suella Braverman MP in the deal.

Jan French, the chairman of the new Brexit Secretary’s constituency association, said both Theresa May and her EU withdrawal deal should be ditched as two polls last night showed substantial swings from Conservative to Labour.

Andrea Leadsom, the Commons leader, who privately indicated she was staying on in an attempt to seek changes to the agreement, stated in a television interview that there was still time for ‘‘more to be done’’ on the deal.

May insisted the draft agreement ‘‘delivers the Brexit the British people voted for’’.

– Telegraph Group

‘‘(The Withdrawal Agreement) has been forged, not by those who have a political pulse, but by those who are risk-averse, pro-Remain and do not want Brexit to happen.’’