Theresa May has defended her blueprint for post-Brexit relations with the EU as senior Tories lined up to rubbish her "unworkable" agreement with Brussels.
The prime minister told MPs that a good Brexit deal was "within our grasp" and urged MPs to get behind her over the next 72 hours, when she will return to the Belgian capital for a summit where EU leaders will decide whether to rubberstamp the deal.
Conservative Eurosceptics expressed their dissent during a tense Commons statement, when ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson described it as "complete nonsense" and Iain Duncan-Smith, former Tory leader, said it was not "at all workable" in its current form.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said: "We should junk forthwith the backstop, upon which the future economic partnership - according to this political declaration - is to be based, and which makes a complete nonsense of Brexit."
Ms May said her deal delivers what Mr Johnson wants, telling him: "The future relationship we have set out in the political declaration ends free movement, ends sending vast sums of money to the European Union every year and ends the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the United Kingdom, and it enables us to hold an independent trade policy and to negotiate trade deals around the whole of the world."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also dismissed the political agreement as "26 pages of waffle," which heralds the "blindfold Brexit we all feared".
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Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has admitted a fresh Brexit referendum is a possibility.
While saying he was “dead set against” he admitted it was "impossible" to rule out if Ms May's deal is rejected by MPs.
He told ITV's Good Morning Britain:
“If it doesn’t go through, whether we end up with no deal or second referendum is impossible to know. I think that everybody should vote for the deal because it is in the national interest."
Asked to rule out the possibility of a second referendum, he said:
“I’m certainly ruling out me supporting it.”
“I think a second referendum would be terrible. It would be incredibly divisive. Think of how divisive the debate about Brexit has been over the last few years. For a second referendum, that would be even worse."
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Boris Johnson paid more than £90,000 for two-hour speech by US asset management firm
The sum is on top of his annual salary as an MP and Daily Telegraph columnist
Political declaration on Brexit: what it says and what it means
Our chief political commentator assesses the new wording in the 26-page version of the document, compared with the seven-page draft published last week"This is not binding under any international law. It is 26 pages of political camouflage designed to take people's eye off the withdrawal agreement and try and persuade them to vote it through. It will not work.
"The legally binding element in this is the withdrawal agreement. That is what MPs will vote on in the meaningful vote. This is a fig leaf.
"Even with this, which won't fool anybody, they will never get the withdrawal agreement through the House of Commons."
The Independent has launched its #FinalSay campaign to demand that voters are given a voice on the final Brexit deal.
Sign our petition here
