The surprise star of the Tory leadership election campaign has warned he will organise an “alternative Parliament” in order to stop a future Prime Minister Discussing his plans to fight no deal, he said there is no majority in Parliament for an option which he said would knock back economic growth over the next years. He said no-deal “does not work.”

The MP for Penrith and the Border added: “I would simply work with colleagues simply to organise another Parliament across the road.

“That sounds quite Civil War-ist, but that is what happened in 2002 when Blair tried not to have a vote on the Iraq war.

“MPs were invited to Church House, and Blair backed down.

“I got into a lot of trouble when I first proposed this, though it’s just a fact that Parliament is not about the building.

“We can certainly find a retired Speaker to chair this.”

Mr Stewart said a former Speaker, such as Betty Boothroyd, could be enlisted to oversee a Parliament continuing to sit in defiance of Boris Johnson if he presses ahead with a no-deal Brexit by seeking to prorogue the Commons, or to use some other “constitutional manoeuvre which means whatever legislation Parliament tries to pass does not bind his hands”.

He said any plan to prorogue Parliament, an option still entertained by Johnson, would be a constitutional outrage.

Mr Stewart outlined his allies in creating this alternative legislature.

He said: “So I, David Gauke, Ken Clarke and, I guess, most of the people that supported me for the leadership will vote against a no-deal Brexit, and Johnson has only got a majority of two.”

He had a scathing assessment of Boris Johnson’s leadership skills, saying: “He likes to be popular.

“I remember I had been pushing our ambassadors to be much more brutally honest about failure and the the weakness of British positions in their countries and he said, ‘Rory, I used to captain rugby teams and that is not how you do it.

“You say to them, “It is great, we can do this.

But, Mr Stewart disputed this, saying: “My disagreement would be that international trade negotiations are not like a rugby match.

“It might work in 80 minutes and pump people up, but you cannot do tariff schedules on the basis of a rugby match.

“Trade negotiations cannot be won on the playing fields of Eton.”

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