Conservatives split over pre-Christmas election instead of passing the Brexit Bill

But Mr Johnson’s veteran aide Sir Eddie Lister, regarded by senior Tory MPs as a steadying influence on the prime minister, is said to favour passing the withdrawal Bill before going to the country in an election.

Some senior Tory MPs have also told Sky News they are opposed to an early election and there are claims that Conservative backbenchers are split 50-50 on an early poll or ratifying the prime minister’s deal.

And one MP told The Guardian: “I’d rather we focused more on passing the Bill. It would be better to go to voters having finished the job. I feel that’s what most colleagues want.”

But Mr Rees-Mogg is said to be worried that the 19 Labour rebels who backed the Bill in the second reading vote this week will decide to support amendments during its committee stage, on issues like customs, a second referendum or blocking no-deal.

The Tory high command also fears that Conservative MPs in the hard Brexit-supporting Eurosceptic European Research Group will fail to support the Bill in the final Commons vote, the third reading, if amendments on customs are passed in the committee stage.

Amid the Tory turmoil, the bullish faction inside Downing Street a source was quoted as saying: “Any time that parliament gets a vote for delay, it will always choose delay. Therefore, if this parliament is unwilling to vote for a deal, we will have to go for a general election.”

MPs fears of a no-deal Brexit were heightened when Mr Johnson told Mr Tusk and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in phone calls that despite the UK’s request for an extension beyond 31 October the PM remained opposed to a delay.

“The PM was clear in restating his position that he does not believe that any delay beyond 31 October is in the interests of the UK or the EU and that we need to get the deal through parliament before that point,” the PM’s spokesman said.

One Tory MP claimed that Mr Johnson had told backbenchers in the Commons Tea Room that he had urged French President Emmanuel Macron to veto an extension beyond his “do-or-die” deadline of 31 October.