Philip Hammond reveals he will quit as chancellor if Boris Johnson becomes PM

Philip Hammond has revealed he will resign as chancellor if Boris Johnson wins the Conservative leadership contest and becomes prime minister.

Mr Hammond said he would quit before being sacked due to his staunch opposition to a no-deal Brexit, something Mr Johnson has not ruled out pursuing if he cannot get changes to Theresa May's Brexit deal.

"Assuming that Boris Johnson becomes the next prime minister, I understand that his conditions for serving in his government would include accepting a no-deal exit on the 31st October and it's not something that I could ever sign up to," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

"It's very important that the prime minister is able to have a chancellor who is closely aligned with him in terms of policy and I therefore intend to resign to Theresa May before she goes to the Palace to tender her own resignation on Wednesday."

Mr Hammond, who has been chancellor since 2016, had been widely expected to leave his role when Mrs May steps down as prime minister.

He is expected to be a prominent opponent of no-deal from the backbenches.

Mr Hammond put the next PM on notice earlier this week when he and three other ministers supported a bid by MPs to make it more difficult for Mrs May's successor to suspend parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit.

He is the second minister to announce his intention to quit if Mr Johnson defeats Jeremy Hunt in the race for Downing Street.

Justice Secretary David Gauke told the Sunday Times: "Given that I've been in the cabinet since Theresa May came to power, I think the appropriate thing is for me to resign to her."

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There is speculation in Westminster that a number of others could follow.

Margot James, who resigned as digital minister on Thursday, told Sky News she thinks others will quit to show their opposition to Mr Johnson's commitment to leave the EU, deal or no deal, at the end of October.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood, an opponent of no-deal, did not rule out resigning when questioned on Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

"I really get frustrated with this energy towards no-deal," he said.

"I know all my parliamentary colleagues on all sides of the House recognise the dangers of no-deal.

"The fact that we keep talking about it - it isn't a solution."

A winner in the contest to succeed Mrs May will be announced on Tuesday, with the victor taking over as PM on Wednesday.

Top of their in-tray will be sorting out Brexit.

Both Mr Hunt and Mr Johnson have pledged to renegotiate the deal Mrs May struck with Brussels last year.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay told Sky News that if "the text isn't changed in any way it is difficult to envisage how that will go through the House of Commons".

He added: "Clearly the EU recognise it's in their interest to avoid a no-deal, a no-deal outcome will be very damaging across the EU and so both sides want to secure a deal and it will be the task of the new prime minister to have those discussions.

"I think the EU recognise it is in both sides interests to get to that outcome."

Both Tory leadership candidates are both opposed to the backstop - an insurance policy designed to avoid the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland - and want to get rid of it.

This controversial measure is fiercely opposed by many Conservative MPs and its presence in the withdrawal agreement saw Mrs May fail three times to get her deal through.

Ireland's deputy PM has warned the next Tory leader that there will be "trouble" if they try to rip up the deal currently on the table.

Simon Coveney told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: "If the approach of the new British prime minister is that they're going to tear up the Withdrawal Agreement, then I think we're in trouble, we're all in trouble, quite frankly, because it's a little bit like saying: 'Either give me what I want or I'm going to burn the house down for everybody'."

He reiterated Dublin's position that the backstop can be avoided through successful negotiations, but that it needs to remain a part of the withdrawal agreement as a fall-back.

"The idea that we can consider moving away from something that took 2.5 years to negotiate given all of that complexity and compromise on both sides to try and accommodate British redlines, don't forget, not EU redlines, we're simply not going to move away from the Withdrawal Agreement," Mr Coveney said.