Boris Johnson has said any post-withdrawal transition period must not last “a second more” than two years, while some senior Conservatives have said Britain should walk away from Brexit negotiations by Christmas if no serious progress is being made.
The foreign secretary’s latest comments on Brexit have put Theresa May under renewed pressure on the eve of the Tory party conference.
Johnson told the Sun that the UK should not have to abide by any new EU rules during the transition period, and that Britain should not make payments to Brussels after it.
He said there can be “no monkeying around” about withdrawal from the EU.
The move came as a letter to the prime minister from senior pro-Brexit Tory MPs and business figures in the Leave Means Leave group stated: “If the EU is not seriously negotiating a free trade deal by Christmas 2017, the government should give formal notice that we will move to World Trade Organisation rules in March 2019.”
Signatories calling for the hardline stance include the former Brexit minister David Jones, and the issue is set to feature heavily at the Tory conference. However, the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, has called for “serious people” to take charge of the Brexit process.
The interventions came as May attempts to assert her grip on her party before its annual gathering.
As the party faithful converge on Manchester, the prime minister said Labour was “unfit to govern” as she pledged to listen to the concerns of young voters after the Tories lost their Commons majority in the snap general election in June.
May said: “As Conservatives, we have a vision of a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few – precisely the direction I set when I became prime minister last year.
“I understand the concerns raised, particularly by young people, during what was a disappointing election for my party.
“So my determination to act on those concerns, and crucially, to fulfil the promise of my first speech on the steps of Downing Street, is greater than ever.”
May added that her party would be “setting out our road to a better future for you and your family”.
She said: “Yes, we have to get the best Brexit deal – but we must also take action here at home to make this a fairer place to live for ordinary working people. The social contract in our country is that the next generation should always have it better than the last. Conservatives have a plan to make that a reality.”
Matthew Parris, the former Conservative MP turned columnist, launched a heated attack on the government in the Times on Saturday, calling it: “Toast. Dead meat. Broken. Sunk. Wrecked.”
Looking ahead to the conference, he said: “They can do what they like, think what they like, announce what they like, promise what they like, but it’s useless now, it’s all too late.”
Parris called May a “zombie prime minister leading a zombie cabinet in a zombie party”.
With most polls putting the Tories and Labour neck and neck, May said a vote for Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister was too risky.
Johnson, who said he was fully supportive of May, is also urging workers to be given a pay hike as he said the current minimum wage of £7.50 an hour – rising to £9 by 2020 – was “not enough”.
He told the Sun: “I want people to be paid more. People get up unbelievably early and they work unbelievably hard, they deserve to be properly paid.”
The comments came as May told Tory supporters that this week’s party conference is a chance for the Conservatives to look to the future after a “disappointing” general election.Corbyn said the foreign secretary’s stance threatened a trade war with the EU and that a “serious, adult, grown-up relationship with Europe” was needed.
“It seems a pretty dysfunctional government. I can’t imagine what it’s like sitting around a table with their Brexit negotiating team because there are three or four people with three or four completely different opinions,” the Labour leader said.
“Boris this morning seems to be saying two years maximum on the transition period and then no shadowing of EU rules. Well, that sounds to me like a threat to have a trade policy that undermines Europe.
“Therein lies the basis of a trade war of the future, therein lies a threat to thousands and thousands of jobs in Britain.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Vince Cable, said Johnson’s intervention had undermined the government’s Brexit negotiating position.
“Boris Johnson’s latest red line sends an appalling signal to EU negotiators who thought they were dealing with David Davis and Theresa May but now realise that the strings are being pulled by others,” he said.
“Senior Conservatives are displaying an abject failure to act together in the national interest and seem more motivated by selfish, personal ambition.”