Dominic Grieve confirmed he would be willing to back Jeremy Corbyn in a no confidence vote if a no deal Brexit appears likely by the end of October. The Remainer MP added it would be a “last resort”. LBC host Iain Dale asked: “Let’s imagine we’re nearing the end of October, it looks as though we’re leaving the EU without a deal.

“Is that the point where you say to Jeremy Corbyn ‘if you put down a confidence vote I and X number of colleagues will support you in it’?”

Mr Grieve replied: “As I said, it’s the thing I wish to do as a last resort.”

Mr Dale clarified: “But you are prepared to do it?”

The former Attorney General confirmed: “Yes. I cannot continue supporting a political party or supporting a Prime Minister in office who wishes to undertake what I think is such a totally crazy thing.”

On whether no deal is “more damaging” than a Jeremy Corbyn Government, Mr Grieve commented: “I’m not sure I agree with the basic premise, for a number of reasons.

“Firstly if the Government were to fall on a no confidence motion it doesn’t necessarily mean there has to be a general election.

“There is a period of 14 days in which an attempt can be made to form a new administration, that’s the first thing.”

The comments follow Tory leadership hopeful Boris Johnson accusing the EU of “moral blackmail” over the Northern Ireland backstop and insisting he would never allow the return of a hard border with the Republic.

In the latest Tory leadership hustings held in Belfast, former Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson said: “Under no circumstances, whatever happens, will I allow the EU or anyone else to create any kind of division down the Irish Sea or attenuate our Union.

“That is why I resigned over Chequers. It is a terrible moral blackmail it puts on the UK Government. We can’t have that.”

Meanwhile, Chancellor Philip Hammond has said the Government “would be wrong” to pursue a no deal policy.

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In exchanges with shadow chancellor John McDonnell in the Commons, Mr Hammond said: “I think I have been consistently clear that I believe leaving with a no deal exit will be bad for the UK, bad for the British economy, bad for the British people.

“We cannot however rule out that that could happen, because it is not entirely in our hands.

“But I do agree with him that it would be wrong for a British government to seek to pursue no deal as a policy.

“And I believe that it will be for the House of Commons, of which I will continue proudly to be a member, to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”

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