LEADING Tory rebel Philip Hammond believes the so-called Rebel Alliance has the numbers to defeat the Government tonight in a landmark vote to stop a no-deal Brexit.

The former Chancellor claimed Boris Johnson’s Government was facing defeat despite the “aggressive operation” from Whitehall against certain Conservative MPs. “There will be enough people for us to get this over the line today,” he declared.

It has been estimated that as things stand there will be at least 14 Tory rebels, who are ready to defy their party leader and risk losing the party whip, which could effectively end their careers as Conservative parliamentarians.

This number should be enough to defeat a government with no working majority but the Government’s arts of persuasion will be used right up to the vote tonight; it could be very close. None of the 13 Scottish Conservative MPs has indicated they will rebel.

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If the vote is won, then the Rebel Alliance will take control of the Commons Order Paper on Wednesday to try to push through a Bill to force a delay to Brexit until January 31 2020. This would also result in the Government trying to table a motion to call for an early election on October 14.

If the vote is lost, then the Prime Minister will continue his Brexit strategy; threatening a no-deal while hoping Brussels will blink and he will get a new agreement minus the Irish backstop. A victory for Mr Johnson would also see, as things stand, Parliament being prorogued for five weeks from Monday evening.

A charm offensive by the PM, involving meetings with rebel Tories in Downing St this morning, appears to have fallen flat. One said the party leader was “unconvincing” while another noted how there were “significant points of difference” with his colleagues.

As the Tory turmoil intensified, Justine Greening, the former Education Secretary, made clear she would rebel and announced she would not stand for the party at the next General Election.

The London MP said her concerns that the Tory Party was morphing into Nigel Farage's Brexit Party had "come to pass" and Mr Johnson was now offering the country a "lose-lose" situation by threatening a general election in which the choice would be between a no-deal Brexit and a Corbyn government.

Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney General, said the PM was displaying a “new ruthlessness,” accusing him of putting the Tory party on a potential path to destruction.

He told the BBC: "I see myself as a Conservative, I'm not about to go off and join another party, but if ultimately the Prime Minister and leader of my party is doing something which I think is so fundamentally wrong then I can't continue supporting it.

"If that means he decides to chuck me out of the party, then that's a matter for him," added Mr Grieve.

Mr Hammond said many of his colleagues had been incensed by some of the strong-arm actions used by the party during the past week or so.

“There is a group of Conservatives who feel very strongly that now is the time to put the national interest ahead of any threats to us personally or to our careers.

"All kinds of threats are being made, most notably to withdraw the whip but these are threats being made by a government, eight Cabinet members of which have themselves defied the Conservative whip this year on the issue of Brexit. It would be rank hypocrisy to withdraw the whip."

The former frontbencher, who has been readopted by his Runnymede constituency party as its election candidate, said he believed Tory HQ did not have the power to withdraw the whip from him if he rebelled.

“There would certainly be the fight of a lifetime if they tried to," he insisted, noting how the matter could end up in the courts.

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Mr Hammond noted how some colleagues had responded to the internal party pressure by announcing they were leaving but he explained: “That is not going to be my approach. This is my party. I have been a member of this party for 45 years."

In what was seen as a swipe at the Prime Minister's controversial right-hand man, Dominic Cummings, he said: "I am going to defend my party against incomers, entryists, who are trying to turn it from a broad church to narrow faction.

"People who are at the heart of this government, who are probably not even members of the Conservative Party, who care nothing about the future of the Conservative Party, I intend to defend my party against them."

A No 10 insider responded by describing the former Chancellor’s remarks as an “hysterical meltdown".

The Tory rebels poised to rebel include:

*Mr Hammond;

*Ms Greening;

*Mr Grieve;

*Sir Oliver Letwin, former Cabinet Office Minister;

*Sir Nicolas Soames, former Defence Minister;

*David Gauke, former Justice Secretary;

*Rory Stewart, former International Development Secretary;

*Caroline Nokes, former Immigration Minister;

*Guto Bebb, former Defence Minister;

*Alistair Burt, former Foreign Office Minister;

*Sam Gyimah, former Education Minister;

*Richard Harrington, former Business Minister;

*Philip Lee, former Justice Minister and

*Antoinette Sandbach, the MP for Eddisbury in Cheshire.