Boris Johnson tonight announced he will finally BACK Theresa May's Brexit deal - just moments after the Prime Minister agreed to resign.
The Tory leadership hopeful U-turned on months of warnings that the deal would render Britain a "vassal state" as soon as the Prime Minister was safely out the way.
At 5pm Mrs May told Tory MPs she will quit once her Brexit deal is passed - with a Tory leadership contest poised to start on May 22.
And at 6pm Mr Johnson told colleagues he would "reluctantly" back the deal, to avoid Brexit not happening at all.
Mr Johnson - who has repeatedly been tipped for Tory leader - refused to answer journalists' questions after a stormy meeting of the Brexit-backing European Research Group.
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A source said at least 30 Hard Brexit Tories were against him in the meeting, insisting they would still vote against the deal.
Furious-looking Mark Francois shouted "no!" when journalists asked if he would back the deal and slammed a door behind him.
And ERG bigwig Steve Baker refused to comment on whether he, like Boris and fellow Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg , had been won over.
Sources said Mr Baker gave an "astonishing" speech against the Brexit deal that ended in him getting a standing ovation and being hugged by fellow MPs.
He said he was "consumed with a ferocious rage after that pantomime" of Mrs May's speech adding: "I could tear this place down and bulldoze it into the river.
"These fools and knaves and cowards are voting on things they don’t even understand.
"I may yet resign the whip than be part of this."
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An ERG source said: "Steve Baker made the most astonishing speech, which got a standing ovation.
"People were hugging him afterwards and we're not a hugging group."
In his speech, Mr Baker reportedly said: "We've been put in this place by people so addicted to power without responsibility that they've given us the choice of no Brexit or this deal."
Meanwhile Mr Johnson refused to say if he still believed Theresa May's deal wrapped a "suicide vest'' around the British constitution, as he claimed in 2018.
A source said: “He still thinks it’s a terrible deal” but there was little to be “salvaged” from the first phase of Brexit talks.
The dramatic development came after Theresa May announced she will QUIT once her Brexit deal is through in a historic address in Parliament.
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The Prime Minister's bombshell statement means a Tory leadership election will kick off on May 22 if her plan finally passes - with sources warning it could be even sooner.
That would install a new Prime Minister in the summer.
After surviving a snap election mauling, a no confidence vote, and the greatest defeat in Parliament's history, the Prime Minister finally bowed to months of pressure in a statement to Tory MPs tonight.
Admitting she'd "heard clearly the mood" of MPs, she announced in the hot, crowded, wood-panelled Committee Room 14: "I know there is a desire for a new approach – and new leadership – in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations – and I won’t stand in the way of that."
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The Northern Irish DUP cancelled a statement amid fevered speculation they too would finally back the PM's deal.
And Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ringleader of the Tory European Research Group, said he would back the deal if the DUP did.
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Labour's leader said: "A change of government can't be a Tory stitch-up, the people must decide."
