THERESA May will not win a Brexit vote in the Commons, according to the man who once headed her Brexit team.

David Davis quit the role of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in July, refusing to back the “soft” stance agreed in the Chequers deal.

READ MORE: New Brexit deal would avoid the need for an Irish border backstop

Speaking in a radio interview yesterday he said the Prime Minister is set to lose when MPs vote on her exit plan.

However, he claimed this would be good news for the UK as it will force the creation of a “better deal”.

Davis said the UK Government has been “unwilling to take any risk” in testing the EU’s negotiating position except on the exit bill, and though a no-deal withdrawal would mean some “hiccups in the first year”, the UK would have “all the rights and controls over our own destiny”.

Slamming “nonsense” concerns about medicine or food shortages, he said: “We are a big country, we can look after ourselves.”

Demanding the publication of all legal advice on Brexit, he said: “What we must see is the complete legal advice, not a summary.”

Insisting that a “no” vote from MPs is “looking like a probability” without clarity on the Irish border backstop plan, he said the legal advice must be made public.

Davis said: “Are we going to have to wait until the Irish Government says it’s OK to leave? If so, that’s not acceptable.

“Are we going to have to wait until it’s convenient for the [European] Commission to say when we leave? If so, it’s not acceptable.

“I suspect that they have not pinned down any of these issues and they need to be pinned down before Parliament votes.”

The backstop aims to prevent the undermining of the Northern Ireland peace process and could see UK involvement with the EU custom union continue for a temporary period if no trade deal has been agreed by the end of 2020.

This could help business by preventing the need for customs checks.

The National:

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, pictured above, argued Westminster must have the right to decide when to quit any backstop involving a customs arrangement, rather than relying on mutual agreement.

He said: “That needs to be an issue for a sovereign British government to be able to determine.”

Meanwhile, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told the Irish Canada Business Association conference in Dublin that an “imminent breakthrough” is not “to be taken for granted”.

He stated: “People seem to make the same mistake over and over again, assuming that if the British Cabinet agrees something, well, then that’s it then, everything is agreed.

“This is a negotiation and needs to be an agreement of course between the British Government but also with the European Union and the 27 countries that are represented by Michel Barnier and his negotiating team.”