LEADING Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has submitted a letter of no confidence in Theresa May, as the Prime Minister reels from the loss of four ministers - including two from her Cabinet - in protest at her Brexit plans.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey sensationally walked out of the Government the morning after Cabinet agreed a draft EU withdrawal agreement in a stormy five-hour meeting.

Two more junior ministers - Suella Braverman at the Brexit Department and Shailesh Vara at Northern Ireland - also quit along with two parliamentary aides.

In a letter to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Mr Rees-Mogg said Mrs May's deal "has turned out to be worse than anticipated and fails to meet the promises given to the nation by the Prime Minister, either on her own account or on behalf of us all in the Conservative Party manifesto".

His move is expected to be matched by other members of the European Research Group, which he chairs, hugely increasing the chances of Mrs May facing a vote of no confidence in her leadership.

A vote will be triggered if 48 Tory MPs write letters to Sir Graham, but it is not known how many he has received so far.

Mrs May's deal came under a hail of criticism in the House of Commons, where only a handful of Tories spoke in favour of an agreement thrashed out in 19 months of intensive negotiations.

There was laughter from opposition benches when the PM said her deal would allow the UK to leave the EU "in a smooth and orderly way" on March 29.

Mrs May insisted the deal was in the national interest and offered a future relationship with "a breadth and depth of co-operation beyond anything the EU has agreed with any other country".

In a swipe at her Brexit-backing critics, she said the EU would never accept any agreement which did not involve a "backstop" arrangement to ensure the Irish border remains open.

Mrs May said it would be "entirely irresponsible" for the Government to have simply torn up the backstop.

"The Brexit talks are about acting in the national interest and that means making what I believe are the right choices, not the easy choices," she said.

"We can choose to leave with no deal, we can risk no Brexitat all, or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated."

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on her to "withdraw this half-baked deal".

And Mr Rees-Mogg told Mrs May the deal did not match up to her previous promises on quitting the customs union, maintaining the internal integrity of the UK and leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

The shock departures of Mr Raab and Ms McVey came within little more than an hour of one another as Mrs May prepared to face MPs.

Their resignations were followed by Anne-Marie Trevelyan quitting as an unpaid parliamentary private secretary in the Department for Education and Ranil Jayawardena leaving the same post in the Ministry of Justice.

The developments threaten to derail the Prime Minister'sBrexit strategy ahead of a crucial EU summit, which European Council president Donald Tusk confirmed would take place on November 25, "if nothing extraordinary happens".

Speaking at an event on Thursday morning, Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen said: “I haven’t seen the withdrawal agreement yet, I plan to spend the afternoon going through it.

"I voted to leave. The people of the Tees Valley voted heavily to leave, and my views will be seen through the prism of that. We must leave the European Union, we must do it properly and it must be a clean Brexit.

"I will give my view once I have looked at the more than 500 detailed pages that were published last night.

“Tees Valley voted very heavily for Brexit and we must deliver on that vote and I will make sure the withdrawal agreement meets that requirement because I need to justify myself to the people of the Tees Valley and not to Theresa May or her Government.

“Ministers will take their own view on the withdrawal agreement, some ministers have read it and taken their views on it and other ministers are happy with it. I will be taking my view from the people of the Tees Valley and not from the Conservative party."

Asked if the Prime Minister should resign, Mr Houchen said: “Theresa May is the leader of the country and we need to back her and we need to make sure the European Union know that we are leaving and we do the best for Britain.”

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, was due to open Quorn’s new forming factory in Billingham on Thursday morning, but pulled out following last night's cabinet meeting.

Theresa May has lost her second Brexit secretary since the role was created.

Here are all the ministers who have left their posts since the 2017 general election.

  • Michael Fallon resigned as defence secretary on November 1 last year after being caught up in Westminster sleaze allegations, saying his behaviour had "fallen below the high standards required" after admitting putting his hand on the knee of radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer some years ago.
  • Priti Patel quit as international development secretary a week later, over undisclosed and unauthorised meetings in Israel, including with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • Damian Green left his post as first secretary of state in the Cabinet on December 20 last year after a probe found he made "inaccurate and misleading" statements about pornography on his computer.
  • It was just eight days into the New Year when Justine Greening was sacked in the PM's reshuffle in January after refusing to move from her education post to the Department for Work and Pensions.
  • Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned in April after admitting she had "inadvertently" misled MPs over the existence of targets for removing illegal immigrants over the Windrush scandal.
  • Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson both quit within a matter of hours of each other in July over Theresa May's Chequers plan for Brexit.
  • Tracey Crouch quit as sports and civil society minister on November 1 over a row about delays in cutting the maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals.
  • Jo Johnson, brother of Boris, left his role as transport minister on November 9, demanding a second Brexit referendum because he said Mrs May was leading the country towards a "terrible mistake".
  • On Thursday Shailesh Vara quit as Northern Ireland minister, saying he could not support Mrs May's Brexit agreement which "leaves the UK in a halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation".
  • Dominic Raab quit as Brexit Secretary, saying he "cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU".
  • Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey followed suit, saying the Brexit deal "does not honour the result of the referendum".
  • Suella Braverman resigned as a Brexit minister, saying she was "unable to sincerely support the deal agreed yesterday by Cabinet".
  • Also on Thursday Anne-Marie Trevelyan resigned as a parliamentary private secretary in the Department for Education, saying she cannot support the Brexit deal after negotiations "built on the UK trying to appease the EU".
  • Conservative MP Ranil Jayawardena also quit his post as a parliamentary private secretary in the Ministry of Justice, telling the Prime Minister that her EU withdrawal agreement "does not deliver a good and fair Brexit".