Rebel Tory MPs will find a way to trigger a Commons vote to block a No Deal, former Cabinet minister Sir Oliver Letwin said today.
However, he stressed that whether there is a majority in Parliament to avert such a potentially chaotic departure from the European Union may only become clear at the last minute.
Ministers insist that Britain will leave the European bloc on October 31 as this is the legal default position.
They appear to be seeking to avoid giving rebels the opportunity to table an amendment to legislation to stop a No Deal.
However, rebels are confident that they can find a way to hold a vote to legislatively block such an EU exit, especially as Speaker John Bercow has made clear he wants to ensure Parliament’s voice is heard.
“The mechanical problems we can overcome...they are relatively easy to overcome,” Sir Oliver told the BBC’s Today programme.
“The difficult thing is to get a majority in Parliament for some other course of action at the last moment if there isn’t a deal.”
He believes there is a “natural majority” of MPs who will speak out against a No Deal but that whether they would actually be willing to vote to block it would not be known “right up until the last moment”.
He also told how cross-party talks between opponents of a no-deal Brexit have been going on “for months and months”.
Around a dozen rebel Tory MPs, who have repeatedly opposed the Government on certain Brexit issues, are now expected to be bolstered in number by ministers sacked by Boris Johnson or who quit the Government before he took over.
Sir Oliver also said Theresa May’s government did not do enough to prepare for an EU crash-out.
He said: “There should have been considerably more preparation even stretching back a couple of years.”
Given that the UK could now be quitting the EU with No Deal, he added: “In that context it makes abundant sense to do everything that can be done in the next three months to prepare the country to minimise the impact of it.”
