Theresa May told to '˜send in diggers' to build Calais checkpoints

Picture: Ben STANSALL / AFP)BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

It comes as Mrs May was told by leadership rivals that they only way to save her job in the event of a likely defeat is to return to Brussels and demand the EU abandon the Irish border backstop.

Downing Street denied reports that tomorrow’s vote could be pushed back, and the Brexit Secretary Steven Barclay said the Prime Minister would not be going to Brussels before a summit scheduled for the end of the week despite the pressure to demand a renegotiation.

Boris Johnson said Mrs May can stay on as prime minister if her Brexit deal is defeated tomorrow – as long as she returns to Brussels and demands the EU abandons the Irish border backstop.

The former foreign secretary claimed the backstop measure left the UK open to “blackmail” by Brussels and was a “diabolical negotiating position” for a future trade deal.

Mr Johnson said Mrs May could “of course” seek a new deal even if MPs reject her current plan, and claimed a big defeat in the Commons would be a “powerful mandate to change that backstop”.

He added the UK should hold back half of its £39bn financial settlement until a trade deal with the EU is agreed.

Mr Johnson said: “We have to prepare convincingly for no deal. We’ve got to get our ports ready, our aviation, our data … we need to be clear with them [the EU] that unless they help us, then there is a risk of no deal.”

In a sign of growing anxiety among her supporters, two MPs who are loyal to the Prime Minister and intend to vote for her deal made the same call, arguing the government could no longer afford to hold off on no-deal preparations.

Emergency no-deal work would need to begin immediately if the government is defeated, they said, with a focus on customs infrastructure at ports that handle trade with Europe.

“We have to get the cranes up over the ports and show we are serious about a no-deal,” one Tory MP said. “We simply haven’t been doing this stuff so far.”

Another MP said too little work had been done in the vital area of data-sharing to prepare for a no deal Brexit, and warned the UK was “not ready”.

Conservative sources said the government was hoping to reduce the size of tomorrow’s defeat to a margin of less than 40, to keep some options open for the Prime Minister.

Mrs May warned Tory MPs they risk handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to Number 10 unless they back her Brexit deal. She told would-be rebels the country would be in “uncharted waters” if the deal is rejected.

“It would mean grave uncertainty for the nation with a very real risk of no Brexit or leaving the European Union with no deal,” she said in a newspaper interview.

“We have a leader of the Opposition who thinks of nothing but attempting to bring about a general election, no matter what the cost to the country … I believe Jeremy Corbyn getting his hands on power is a risk we cannot afford to take.”