The international trade secretary, Liam Fox, has said he will back Theresa May’s Brexit proposals for Brexit on the basis that Britain must leave the EU next March and the terms can be later revised.
In a qualified endorsement of the prime minister as she faces down senior Brexiter Tories who lined up alongside Fox during the referendum in, he said Brexit would be at risk in the absence of compromise.
“We must leave, and we must leave on the 29 of March. Not to deliver Brexit is the greatest political risk we could run,” Fox said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“We should try to get as much of a final deal as we can get by the 29th of March, but it’s self-evident that if it’s a bilateral treaty, it can be revised later on.”
Fox has been among veteran Eurosceptics in the cabinet who have, for the most part kept their counsel, on May’s Chequers plan.
Fox’s comments are particularly significant in that he is the last of the three cabinet ministers originally charged with securing the best Brexit deal for Britain to still be in government after Boris Johnson and David Davis walked out.