(Alliance News) - Pro-EU Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond on Friday suggested he could back a no-confidence vote if Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to succeed UK Prime Minister Theresa May, steers Britain towards a no-deal Brexit.
It is "absolutely necessary" for Britain to extend the deadline for leaving the EU beyond the scheduled date of October 31, Hammond said told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and French newspaper Le Monde.
"I will take steps to avoid an exit without agreement apart from an explicit parliamentary approval," he said when asked about the possibility of supporting a no-confidence motion against Johnson.
"I do not exclude anything for the moment," Hammond added.
Hammond abstained on Thursday as British lawmakers backed a legal amendment that could help to prevent a no-deal Brexit.
He is the most prominent of several pro-EU ministers who are expected to leave the Conservative government if, as expected, Johnson wins the party's run-off to succeed May.
Speaking to Friday's Daily Express, Johnson said the three years since Britain voted by a slim majority to leave the EU "will seem like a bad dream," once his new government starts work.
"We'll get on with it and think much more about what we are going to do to unleash the talents and the potential of the whole country," he told the pro-Brexit tabloid.
Johnson again ruled out any delay to Brexit beyond October 31.
"I don't think there is any appetite in the UK for another extension, nobody wants it. I certainly won't have it," he said.