Brexit: Amber Rudd accused of U-turn over no-deal in bid for job under Boris Johnson

‘She will let Boris Johnson drive her home after all – so long as it’s in a ministerial limo’

Amber Rudd has been accused of ditching her opposition to a no-deal Brexit in return for a job under Boris Johnson, after a carrying out a screeching U-turn.

Last year – when a backbencher – the work and pensions secretary backed a Final Say referendum over crashing out of the EU, saying: “Is that preferable to a no-deal? Absolutely.”

But Ms Rudd has now said she backs the argument put forward by Mr Johnson, and rival Jeremy Hunt, that the UK must leave on 31 October, on whatever terms necessary.

“Both candidates have said that no deal is part of the armoury going forward, and I have accepted that,” she told Talkradio.

Nick Boles, the former Tory MP now sitting as an Independent, was withering, tweeting: “So she will let Boris Johnson drive her home after all – so long as it’s in a ministerial limo...”

The comment harked back to Ms Rudd’s celebrated criticism, during the Brexit campaign, that the leadership frontrunner was “not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening”.

One former minister told The Independent: “The worst thing is not that she’s done it – after everything she said about no-deal – but that it was totally predictable.”

Last September, Ms Rudd also attacked a loose Canada-style trade deal with the EU – advocated by Mr Johnson – as hugely damaging for UK manufacturing.

She is the latest in a string of high-profile Conservative opponents of a no-deal Brexit who have swung behind Mr Johnson, as the jostling for a top job in his cabinet intensifies.

They include Matt Hancock – who fought the leadership battle on a no-deal ticket, before dropping out – and Damian Green, who had pledged to work to prevent a crash-out departure.

Ms Rudd is supporting Mr Hunt, who is also ready to carry out a no-deal on Halloween, if necessary, but opposes suspending parliament to thwart opponents.

The interview was the clearest statement yet that she is prepared to meet Mr Johnson’s test of only recruiting cabinet members ready to accept leaving without an agreement.

She said: “The situation is that we are leaving at the end of October but it would be so much better to get a deal. What we really need is for everybody’s effort to go into trying to get a deal.”

The parliamentary fight for a mechanism to stop Mr Johnson shutting down parliament in October, and therefore block a no-deal, will resume in the House of Lords on Monday.

Tory rebel Dominic Grieve says peers are likely to reinstate clauses, thrown out in the Commons, to ensure parliament is sitting to consider Northern Ireland business.

Pro-EU MPs hope anti no-deal government ministers will then be “shamed and embarrassed” into joining the revolt in September, as one put it – when the UK will be even closer to the no-deal cliff edge.