Theresa May should "rule out extending Article 50", former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has said.

The Tory former Cabinet minister branded moves by MPs to push the Prime Minister into extending Britain's membership of the European Union as an "extraordinary and undemocratic thing to do".

Mr Raab, speaking to Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, said: "If there's an attempt to reverse the referendum, stop Brexit altogether I think that would cut across not only the democratic mandate, the biggest in history we had.

"I think also if you look at current public opinion and how it's shifted by two to one as I said people want us to respect the referendum."

Mr Raab went on to say that to break the deadlock with Brussels the negotiating team should be changed, he said: "For all the great work the civil servants have done, I think to close this deal it needs to be politically led and driven so taken into control of the politicians."

Nicky Morgan agreed that Theresa May shouldn't be extending Article 50 (
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Getty Images)

Tory Europhile Ken Clarke has led calls for the extension of Article 50 to give the government more time to secure a deal.

During Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday Mr Clarke said Theresa May should reconsider ruling out a no deal, extending Article 50, and the prospect of a customs union, and warned her to "modify her red lines which she created for herself”.

But Theresa May told him that "government policy is that we are leaving on 29 March".

Today Remain-supporting Tory Nicky Morgan said it was one of the few things she agreed with Mr Raab on.

She told Sky's Sophy Ridge: "I do think people do want us to get on with this."

Ms Morgan is part of a group of MPs who are working to try and seize control of the parliamentary agenda to thwart a no-deal departure.

Dominic Raab wants the deal to be renegotiated (
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One group led by Tory former minister Nick Boles and the senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper is attempting to block a no-deal Brexit - something Mrs May strongly opposes.

However The Sunday Times reported that a second group led by the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, and which includes Ms Morgan, wants to go further and suspend the Article 50 withdrawal process.

Downing Street described the moves as "extremely concerning" and said they underlined the need for MPs who supported Brexit to vote for it in the House.

Ms Morgan said: "I think it's very clear there is no majority in parliament for a no deal outcome."

Asked if their plans amounted to a coup, she said: "It's a strange sort of coup that starts with a whole lot of democratically elected members of Parliament... it is unprecedented" responds Nicky Morgan.

Dominic Raab says the UK should go back to the EU and get a better deal (
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PA)

Mr Raab later admitted that he believed there would be some "short term risks" of a no deal Brexit, but said they would be "manageable".

He said: "The advantage of course if we did end up leaving on WTO terms and I said that's not my preferred outcome, is we'd immediately seize the opportunities and take back control of our laws, our borders, to have an independent free trade policy around the world.

"I think for the public Brexit would be delivered, we could move on."

Challenged over whether Mr Raab was setting himself up for the Tory leadership, he said: "No, what I'm trying to do is, we talk so much about doom and gloom, about the risk and the downside of Brexit we've lost the vision, we've lost the optimism, the hope that fired up 17 million people-plus to vote for the biggest democratic mandate in our history."

Mr Raab added that he wanted to set out a positive post-Brexit vision for the UK.