CUMBRIA’S high-profile rebel Tory MP Rory Stewart has accused some of Boris Johnson’s supporters of having a “blind faith” in the Premier.

With the Prime Minister this week on the brink of making what his cabinet colleagues say will be the UK’s “final” offer to EU negotiators, Penrith and the Border MP Mr Stewart said that if the Prime Minister does secure a new Brexit deal he will apologise to him and resign.

Speaking exclusively to The Cumberland News, Mr Stewart set out his belief that the Prime Minister’s current negotiations were doomed to produce proposals incapable of approval by the EU, and unlikely to win majority backing in the Commons.

He said: “Were he to secure a deal, and get it through, I would apologise to him and accept that the basic drive of my [recent] political career, which was that he would never get a deal and that he was pushing for a no-deal, was wrong.

“In that situation, I would have to resign, with good grace; and with deference to him.

“If he gets a deal, he is right and I was wrong – and I would owe him a huge apology....

“But I am afraid that my honest belief is that they are going to produce something which is completely unacceptable to the EU – and then say because it has been rejected we’re going to have a no-deal. The whole thing – the talk of a deal – has always been a sham because they have never been prepared to make the compromises that are necessary.”

Mr Stewart said he believed those in charge of the latest negotiations were not serious about getting a deal. They had not attempted to reach out to Labour MPs and nor had they done the serious work that was needed in Brussels, he said.

“I think they are just bluffing,” said Mr Stewart, who believes the so-called Benn Act – the law passed by MPs to prevent a no-deal exit on October 31 – will do the job it was designed to do.

“I don’t see how he can possibly leave by October 31,” said Mr Stewart.

Asked if Mr Johnson should resign in the event of him being unable to keep his “do or die” promise to get the UK out of Europe by the end of this month, Mr Stewart said: “If he fails, in any normal, rational world I would say so, but I am afraid he is moving into a new, Trumpian universe, where if he fails to deliver the one thing he promised to deliver he would somehow not be affected by it at all.

“A lot of his supporters have a blind faith in him. It gets to the stage where it doesn’t matter what he does; people just continue to believe. It’s absurd.

“I ran a campaign saying ‘don’t promise to leave by October 31 because you won’t be able to deliver’. You will destroy everyone’s trust in politics.”

The MP said he was now considering standing “somewhere” as an independent MP, adding: “I am having serious doubts I can rejoin the Conservative Party at the moment. It’s not the Conservative Party I joined. I believe in Parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law, and our constitution – a party that was understated, and modest.”