East of England Euro MP Alex Mayer insists Brexit deal is not in the national interest

MP calls for general election or a public vote on the draft agreement

East of England labour Euro MP Alex Mayer has slammed Theresa May’s Brexit deal as the prime minister faces a challenge to her leadership and battle to get the draft agreement through Parliament.

Although the PM managed to get agreement on the deal from her cabinet colleagues last night, she spent three hours this morning, November 15, addressing questions from MPs of all parties amid four resignations in protest at what many labelled a ‘flawed’ deal.

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab quit the cabinet over “fatal flaws” in the draft agreement with the EU and another member of the cabinet, Esther McVey, also resigned alongside junior ministers Suella Braverman and Shailesh Vara.

Leading backbench Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has since sent a letter of no confidence in her to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Tories’ backbench 1922 Committee. But a vote will only be triggered if 48 Tory MPs also write to Brady.

Ms Mayer was equally unimpressed with the draft Brexit agreement and called for a general election or a public vote on the deal.

She said: “Finally Theresa May has hammered out a desperate Brexit deal. If it took a marathon five hour meeting to sell the deal to her own cabinet, I wonder how she will fare selling the deal to the rest of the country?

“Brexit is a once in a generation catastrophe for our country but I do not believe the deal that will stand the test of time. This Brexit deal looks a million miles away from what was promised in 2016.

“I will never back a deal that further deregulates the economy, supports neo-liberalism but undermines the rights of working people.

“We were promised the same benefits we enjoy today in terms of trade and access to the world’s largest single market. Instead Britain will be stuck in an indefinite limbo without any real say.

“Theresa May is wrong - this Brexit deal isn’t in the national interest.

“I don’t want this bad deal or no deal. It’s time for a general election or a public vote on the deal.”

Mr Rees-Mogg said he did not have any leadership ambitions of his own but Boris Johnson, David Davis, Dominic Raab, Esther McVey and Penny Mordaunt were among those he named as being ‘“very capable of leading a proper Brexit’.

The prime minister told MPs the agreement would deliver the Brexit people voted for and allow the UK to take back control of its ‘money, laws and borders’ in March next year.

Michael Gove is understood to have been offered the role as Brexit secretary in the wake of Dominic Raab’s resignation.