Final Say: Conservative MP Heidi Allen backs fresh referendum on Brexit, saying there is 'no alternative'

Backbencher says Chequers is 'dead', so 'we need to go back to the public to decide what they want us to do next'

Heidi Allen has become the latest Conservative MP to back a Final Say Brexit referendum, arguing there is now “no alternative”.

The prominent backbencher said that, with the Chequers proposals “dead” and the threat to jobs from crashing out of the EU without a deal, the decision had to be thrown back to the public.

Ms Allen blamed Boris Johnson and other Tory right-wingers for killing off Theresa May’s Chequers plan, which now had no chance of approval at Westminster – even if it can be revived in Brussels.

“They have behaved unacceptably through this and have completely tied her hands,” she said. “It is they who have made Chequers dead.”

She then added: “That being the case, then I think that it is the end of the road, which is very disappointing and for me leaves us with no alternative.

“Should we come to that and no deal ... then we need to go back to the public to decide what they want us to do next.”

Crucially, Ms Allen said the option of staying in the EU under existing terms would have to be on the ballot paper.

She told BBC Radio 4 that she would still support in principle an “11th hour” deal hammered out by the prime minister but that it was now clear many in her party would not.

Her comments came as the Conservative faithful gather in Birmingham for the party’s annual conference and after Mr Johnson’s latest broadside against the prime minister’s negotiating stance.

The South Cambridgeshire MP joins Anna Soubry, Justine Greening, Sarah Wollaston, Philip Lee, Dominic Grieve and Guto Bebb to become the seventh Tory to back a further referendum on the exit terms.

On Thursday, Amber Rudd also agreed a fresh public vote was preferable to leaving the EU without a deal, saying: “I think a ‘people’s vote’ could be the result of an impasse.”

The rising support is evidence that moderate Tories are flexing their muscles to prevent the prime minister carrying out her threat to crash out if necessary.

The Independent has launched its Final Say campaign, to give the British people the crucial decision on any Brexit deal, which is supported by more than 840,000 people who have signed our petition.

Last month, Nick Boles, a former Tory minister, warned party hardliners that their “dream” of a no-deal Brexit would be blocked by at least 40 fellow Conservatives.

And The Independent revealed in June that they could use a “humble address” – the tactic Labour used to force the government to release Brexit economic assessments – to prevent it.