Justine Greening backs second Brexit referendum as Theresa May battles 'party within a party'

Justine Greening became the first senior Conservative to back calls for a second Brexit referendum on Sunday night, as Theresa May faced a battle with her own MPs and grass roots Tories over her Chequers proposal.

The former education secretary, who campaigned to remain in the European Union, told The Times that Theresa May's Brexit deal is "the worst of both worlds" and will ultimately satisfy no one.

She said: "The only solution is to take the final Brexit decision out of the hands of the deadlocked politicians."

Mrs May was already facing opposition from grass roots Tories over the proposals on Sunday, as she revealed that Donald Trump told her to sue the EU to get the best Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister disclosed the President's “brutal” advice about negotiating a Brexit deal, given during her visit to the White House in January last year, in a BBC interview.

Mr Trump had told reporters during his visit to the UK last week: "I did give her a suggestion, I wouldn’t say advice, and I think she found it maybe too brutal. 

“Maybe someday she’ll do that. If they don’t make the right deal she might very well do what I suggested she might want to do."

On Sunday she told the Andrew Marr Show: "He told me I should sue the EU. Not go into negotiations, sue them."

She added: “What the President also said at that press conference was don't walk away, don't walk away from the negotiations because then you're stuck.”

Experts said Mr Trump was correct to say that legal action was an option - but there was doubt whether it would succeed.

Mrs May faced dissent from both sides of the Tory party on Sunday, after Robert Courts, an unpaid ministerial aide at the Foreign Office, quit the Government, saying he could not look himself in the mirror if he stayed on in Government.

His resignation means that eight ministers or senior party figures have quit in the nine days since the outline Chequers deal was published.

Mr Courts said he would now join other Tory MPs like Lee Rowley to vote for amendments tabled by the Eurosceptic European Research Group of Tory MPs to Brexit legislation later on Mondau.

Brandon Lewis, the party Chairman, and Gavin Barwell, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, hosted a conference call with senior members of the voluntary party to gauge the mood among the grassroots about the Brexit proposals.

Senior Conservatives will be worried that MPs will return from their constituencies on Monday having been confronted by angry activists and determined to get the Prime Minister to water down her Chequers deal.

An Opinium poll for the Observer showed that support for the UK Independence Party is surging with the party experiencing a 5 percentage point jump in support from 3 per cent to 8 per cent in just a month. 

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, blamed Mrs May personally, accusing her of being “a Remainer who has remained a Remainer”.

"The government unfortunately believes that Brexit is not a good thing in itself," he told the BBC's Sunday Politics show. "It seems to think it has to be tempered with non-Brexit."

Priti Patel, the former international development secretary who is proposing one of four amendments to the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Bill, told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour the white paper had "many flaws around our independence and our ability to make free trade agreements".

She added: "Things have moved on from that very clear message that Brexit means Brexit, and that is why we are rightfully questioning the legislation, putting forward new clauses and amendments, and saying not just to the Prime Minister but the whole of government reconsider, look again and work with us."

Eurosceptic Conservative MPs have now set up a “party within a party” with a highly organised whipping operation to try to frustrate Mrs May’s Brexit plans.

More than 100 Eurosceptic Tory MPs are now on a WhatsApp group co-ordinated by former Brexit minister Steve Baker who is giving them voting instructions.

One Eurosceptic source told The Daily Telegraph: “If she wants to start a civil war in the Conservative party, this is what is going to happen.

“She is not going to have to get Chequers through on the basis of working with Labour MPs – she will have to get everything through on the basis of coalition with Labour MPs. Whatever that will be, it will not be a Tory government anymore."

The messages: