Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell has warned MPs to back Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal - or prepare for a disastrous “no deal” Brexit which would make the country poorer.
Mr Mitchell, MP for the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, also said the Conservative party was deeply divided, with a “breakdown in normal party discipline” which is going to be “very difficult indeed to heal”.
He backed Mrs May after the Cabinet met at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, and agreed a proposed deal which includes plans for a free trade zone with the EU.
Two members of the Cabinet later resigned and spoke out against the plan, which has been attacked by a number of Conservative MPs.
Mr Mitchell said the country faced a choice between accepting the Chequers plan, or leaving the EU without a deal - which would make the nation poorer.
He said: “It seems to me that there are now really only two possible outcomes. The first is a deal based very largely on the Chequers settlement. “
And he added: “If there is no deal, I am sure we will survive and all will be fine in 10 years’ time, but it will not be fine at the outset.
“No deal - at least at first - will threaten our levels of growth and risk the living standards and prospects of those we are sent here to represent.
“It risks endangering the opportunities we want to see for our constituents, not least the younger ones leaving education and entering the world of work.”
He said voters would blame the Conservative Party, regardless of how they voted in the 2016 EU referendum.
“Whether people voted leave or remain, the Conservative party owns this process and will be held to account for no deal.”
Mr Mitchell was a Conservative whip, charged with keeping order within the party, when the Tories were deeply divided over the EU’s Maastricht treaty in 1992 and 1993.
The battles were so fierce that at one point Sir John Major, the Conservative Prime Minister at the time, was recorded calling three of his own Cabinet ministers “bastards”.
But Mr Mitchell said that the party was actually more split now than it was then.
He said: “I have to say, in all honesty, that the position today is far worse in terms of internal conflict and disagreement than ever it was during the Maastricht era.
“Of course the divisions are not just within this side of the House; they run throughout our constituencies - mine was divided almost exactly 50:50 - and between friends and family.
“They have led to a breakdown in collective responsibility in the Cabinet, with the consequent breakdown in normal party discipline far worse than anything we remotely saw during the parliamentary stages of Maastricht.
“This breakdown in relationships, these deep divisions in this place and outside, are going to be very difficult indeed to heal.”
He criticised Mrs May for agreeing to amend legislation the Customs Bill, an important piece of Brexit legislation, following pressure from Brexiteer MPs led by Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Referring to Mr Rees-Mogg’s Somerset constituency, he said: “Many of us regret the Government’s decision to give in at the first whiff of grapeshot emanating from the West Country earlier this week.”
Mr Mitchell also opposed a second referendum on Brexit, though he didn’t quite rule the idea out.
“There are those who, with great eloquence, advance the case for a second referendum, but I have come to the conclusion that while it is just possible that Parliament might wish to seek public endorsement of the deal itself, it is most unlikely.
“That is because if we held another referendum with a different result, why not have the best of three? We see ourselves as a serious country, we have settled the matter in a significant referendum, and for better or worse we are leaving.”
The Government is to issue a series of public warnings about the impact of a no-deal Brexit.
Consumers and employers will be given detailed advice on how to prepare for leaving the European Union without agreement.
