TORY former culture minister Ed Vaizey claimed Boris Johnson was "just going through the motions" with his Europe trip this week and was "hell-bent on getting No Deal".
He said the "real onus now" was on Parliament to show that it was willing to pass a Withdrawal Agreement, adding that talk of a government of national unity was "completely for the birds".
Johnson is set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel later, the first in a series of meetings with European and world leaders over the coming days.
In a letter to Donald Tusk, released late on Monday night, the Prime Minister insisted the backstop had to be taken out of the divorce deal. He claimed it risked undermining the Good Friday Agreement.
Vaizey suggested Johnson had no intention of reaching an agreement with the EU.
The MP for Wantage told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Well I'm not going to vote no confidence in the Government. I will look at any measures that could prevent no-deal happening, but my challenge to my anti No-Deal colleagues, and I totally respect their position and my position is where does that get us? Where does an extension get us? It delays it by six months to a year, it doesn't solve the problem.
"We've been looking at the wrong target. The EU has said again and again and again this is the deal. They've got 27 countries to support it; we can't even get 350 MPs to support it.
"We're going to keep coming back to the Withdrawal Agreement, we're going to continue to have a hung Parliament and a zombie Parliament unless and until we leave the EU and parties can then campaign to try and get a majority.
"So we have to find a way to get Parliament to agree to a deal and therefore I would give Boris Johnson the credit of at least forcing on Parliament an existential crisis by being faced with a Prime Minister who is hell-bent on getting no-deal.
"He is completely serious about No-Deal and there's no chance of him negotiating a deal with the EU, he knows that, he's just going though the motions."
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Former German ambassador to the UK, Thomas Matussek warned there were "certain issues on which the EU cannot budge" and those who thought the EU might make eleventh hour concessions "might be in for a nasty surprise".
Referring to the backstop, he told Today: "We cannot throw Ireland under the bus, what message would that send to other members of the EU family if we gave up that sort of loyalty and solidarity?"
Asked if the EU could make last-minute concessions to the UK over Brexit, he said: "Well I think this time it might be wrong because I think it's important if you try to put yourself into the shoes of your partner and the clear assessment of the interests of both sides indicate that there are certain issues on which the EU cannot budge and these are the four freedoms. So I think they might be in for a nasty surprise."
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He added: "Of course if we see and listen to parliamentarians and to people who show more understanding of what Europe is, we think there might be a glimmer of hope, but I think they will continue keeping out of the internal British debate."
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick insisted it was "entirely possible" for Johnson to secure a Brexit deal, but removing the backstop offered the "only prospect of securing a deal".
He told Today programme: "He's (Mr Johnson) saying... he will negotiate energetically in the pursuit of a deal, he's very happy to sit down and to talk to EU leaders, but he's making clear that the backstop needs to be removed, that is the only prospect of securing a deal."
"If we have a very credible option to leave on October 31... if we do that and we make clear to the EU that we want to secure a deal, we want to leave in an orderly way that works both for us and for our friends in the EU, but that the only way to do that is to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement, remove the backstop."
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