Now Tory Brexiteers plan a 'hop, skip and jump' exit from EU on March 29

Tory Brexiteers are prepared to settle for what they call a “hop, skip and jump” Brexit – paving the way for a deal as early as this week so Britain leaves the EU on time.

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The HOP is to reluctantly accept Theresa May ’s new deal with Brussels.

The SKIP is the transition to get a free trade deal in place while we are effectively still in the EU.

And the JUMP is to finally cut all EU ties by December 2022 at the latest.

Tory Brexiteer Nigel Evans said: “Hop, skip and jump is not the clean break we all campaigned for. But now is the time for compromise to break the logjam.”

Fellow Brexiteer and ex-Minister John Whittingdale added: “I want to leave on March 29. We have to compromise.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Tory European Research Group, says he’d back the PM with backstop assurances.

If Mrs May’s deal goes through, it would end moves to extend Article 50 or have a second referendum.

Brexiteers now accept any Brexit delay risks it not happening at all.

A swift Brexit now hinges on the DUP backing Attorney General Geoffrey Cox’s renegotiated Irish backstop — still being thrashed out with Brussels.

A senior Whitehall source said: “It’s not impossible it will fall into place this week and there will be a vote. But we’re cautious because the EU always likes to play it long.”

Brexiteers say they’ve dropped demands to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement and would accept a legally-binding codicil or appendix instead.

Hopes of that rose yesterday as chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said it was ready to give “guarantees, assurances and clarifications” a backstop is temporary.

If the PM gets her deal Tory MPs expect her to announce in April she is to quit having secured her legacy.

A summer leadership contest would see the winner crowned at the party conference in Manchester in September.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is now front runner ahead of Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

Labour is still pushing for its own Norway-style Brexit — a customs union closely aligned to the Single Market.

MP Lucy Powell calls it Common Market 2.0, saying there was no majority for no deal or a second referendum.

But last night Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable wrote a letter to Jeremy Corbyn inviting him to “work together and stop Brexit” with a People’s Vote.