DAVID Davis has warned Theresa May that he will vote down any Brexit deal based on her Chequers compromise.
The former Brexit secretary, who resigned from Government in July over the Prime Minister’s plans, said the proposals, if realised, would be worse for Britain than being in the EU.
He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “No, I’d vote against it, it would be rather odd for me to resign over something and then vote for it when it came back.
“In my view, the Chequers proposal – it’s not a deal, we shouldn’t call it the Chequers deal, it’s the Chequers proposal – is actually almost worse than being in.”
Davis added: “We will be under the rule of the EU with respect to all of our manufactured goods and agri-foods, that’s a really serious concession, what about take back control, it doesn’t work?
“That actually leaves us in a position where they dictate our future rules without us having a say at all, so it’s a worse deal.”
He added: “I was quite clear in my mind that she [May] saw this as an opportunity to be grasped. My disappointment about Chequers is it actually denies us a large part of that opportunity.”
On his successor Dominic Raab, he added: “He will do the best he can on the Chequers deal, but unfortunately the Chequers deal is not one which is going to be good enough for the UK.”
Davis’s comments came as reports suggested Tory election guru, Lynton Crosby (pictured) had abandoned May, and was secretly masterminding a plot to destroy her Brexit plan and hand Boris Johnson the keys to Number 10.
According to the Sunday Times, Crosby has has ordered his allies to work with hardline Brexiteers, including Jacob Rees Mogg’s European Research Group, to run a nationwide campaign against the Chequers plan.
That will involve MPs publishing their own alternative before the Tory party conference.
A senior Tory told the paper: “Lynton’s firm is working with the ERG to run this campaign to bring down Chequers. It looks like Lynton is hitting back after falling out over the election campaign and is trying to boot out the Prime Minister. They want to get Boris in.”
One of those involved in the plot admitted that destroying Chequers would lead to May’s resignation: “If we stop Chequers, there is no way she’ll survive.”
The Times also reported that 33 Tory MPs have written to Graham Brady, the chair of the backbench 1922 committee, calling for a vote of no-confidence in May – that’s 15 short of the number needed to automatically trigger the poll.
Over the weekend May ruled out holding a second referendum on Brexit, saying it would be a “gross betrayal” of those who voted to leave the EU.
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