Shropshire and mid Wales MPs reluctant to rule out 'no deal' Brexit

The letter, organised by Tory MP for Meriden, Dame Caroline Spelman, and Birmingham Labour MP Jack Dromey, warned that jobs would be at risk if Britain left the EU without an agreement in March.

The letter has also attracted support from manufacturing giants Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Ford.

But Ludlow MP Philip Dunne said it was not helpful to tie Theresa May's hands at a time she was trying to negotiate with the EU.

"I didn't sign the letter," said Mr Dunne, a former government minister.

"I take the view that at this critical moment in negotiations, it serves no practical purpose to indicate to the EU that there is not parliamentary support for a managed no deal.

"We're in the middle of negotiations, and the Prime Minister needs to be able to speak with confidence to the EU about what will happen and this letter, in my view, undermines that."

Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, said he supported the view expressed by the Prime Minister during a speech in January 2017, when Mrs May said "no deal is better than a bad deal".

Mr Pritchard said he hoped the EU would soften its stance and come up with a more realistic offer.

"Ideally the EU will relent and give the UK a less draconian deal," he said.

"No deal is far better than a bad deal. A 'no deal' is a bit of a misnomer, as it will just mean the UK trading on World Trade Organisation rules, like many other successful countries.

"The EU appears to be trying to punish the UK. But I still hope a sensible deal can be agreed."

'Ridiculous'

Glyn Davies, MP for Montgomeryshire, said he thought the letter was ridiculous.

"For most of my life I was a farmer, and I would never have gone to somebody selling a tractor telling them I'm buying that tractor before I know what the price is," he said.

"Anybody who signed that letter hasn't got any idea of how to negotiate any kind of deal.

"I don't want 'no deal', but once you rule it out, you rule out any chance of negotiation. It is not a negotiation then, it is a surrender."

Mr Davies said that many of the industrialists who supported the letter did so because they did not want Britain to leave the European Union.

But he said they were weakening Mrs May's hand in trying to secure the best possible deal for Britain.

"They are making life incredibly difficult for the Prime Minister, who is trying to negotiate as good a deal as possible for Britain."

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said there were pros and cons to leaving without a deal, and it was wrong to paint leaving on WTO terms as some kind of disaster.

"I think they are putting the cart before the horse in the sense that we are now hearing the EU is potentially more responsive to giving something which is potentially meaningful for the Northern Ireland backstop," he said.

"A lot of Conservative MPs like me would be willing to support the deal if there was a legal assurance over the Northern Ireland backstop.

"This initiative by Caroline Spelman and Jack Dromey is perhaps redundant if there can be an agreement over the Prime Minister's deal."

He said Britain already carried out trade under WTO terms with the US worth £400 billion a year, making it the UK's biggest single trading partner.

Many businesses in his constituency were already making preparations to trade with the EU under WTO rules, he added.