Theresa May would be toppled if Parliament votes down final Brexit deal, says senior Tory

Select committee chair admits there would be a 'new government' if prime minister cannot persuade MPs to back her

Theresa May had to make a last-minute concession to Tory rebels demanding Parliament is given a vote on the final Brexit deal (Getty)

Theresa May will be toppled as prime minister if she fails to get her Brexit deal through Parliament, a senior Conservative MP has warned.

Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said there would be a “new government” if MPs vote down the final agreement the prime minister makes with Brussels.

He is the first senior Conservative to suggest Ms May would likely be removed as prime minister in such a scenario.

Mr Tugendhat’s comments come amid a furious row in the Conservative Party over attempts to ensure Parliament is given a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit deal.

Pro-EU Tory MPs had threatened to vote in favour of a House of Lords amendment that would give Parliament more control if the government’s deal is voted down, but were won over by a last-minute concession from Theresa May.

The issue will rear its head again when the government’s flagship EU Withdrawal Bill returns to the Lords next week.

Mr Tugendhat said there would be a meaningful vote either way, because a rejection of the deal would be considered a vote of no confidence in the government.

He told Sky News: “I think we’re going to get a meaningful vote anyway.

“The meaningful vote is going to be either the government’s deal is accepted, in which case that’s the meaningful vote to accept it, or it is not accepted, in which case, frankly, there’s going to be a new government.”

However, he defended the government’s handling of the Brexit process, saying: “What we’re trying to do is exactly what the country expects and what the whole country is trying to do, which is find a way through what is frankly the hardest negotiation this country is going to undergo in peacetime."

Earlier in the week, leading Brexiteer Jacob-Rees Mogg also appeared to raise the prospect of a change of government when he suggested the best way to express opposition to the final Brexit deal would be to hold a vote of no confidence.

He told the Commons: "There is a perfectly reasonable way of ensuring that the government do the proper thing, and that is a vote of no confidence.

"As long as the government maintain the confidence of this House, they ought to be able to negotiate international treaties, but if they fail in their negotiations, the House has a remedy that has been a remedy for very many years."