IT is time to “chuck Chequers” says a Bournemouth MP.

Prime Minister Theresa May presented the Chequers proposal for Brexit to EU and European leaders in Salzburg this week, but was widely considered to have been humiliated by their response. President of the European Council Donald Tusk said the plan “will not work”, while French President Emmanuel Macron said those who had claimed Britain “can easily do without Europe” were “liars”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there could be “no compromise” on the single market.

Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns said it was time for the Chequers proposal to be dropped.

“As many of us predicted, the Chequers offer is not going to be acceptable,” he said.

“Now more than ever we need to chuck Chequers. Instead of asking for something they are clearly not willing to give us, let’s get on with something they are.”

Mr Burns, who resigned from the Government in protest against the proposal alongside his boss former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in July, said the EU had already agreed to the ‘Canada++’ free trade arrangement and this should be pursued instead.

“That would be very good for the UK and for the EU too,” he said.

“We can come to separate agreements outside that, on Horizon 2020 and Euratom, and on security and intelligence sharing.”

Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Michael Tomlinson said the EU’s reponse to the Chequers plan had been “incredibly half-hearted and inadequate”.

He praised Mrs May for her "robust" speech yesterday, saying that reiterating the importance of keeping the UK together and assuring EU citizens of their right to remain was the “best response” to the EU’s leaders.

“She is doing the right thing by stepping up preparations for no-deal on World Trade Organisation rules. Clearly everyone would prefer there to be a sensible and straight-forward deal but it is nothing to be frightened of.”

He said he would back a Canada-style deal but the EU had only agreed this for Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland.

Christchurch MP Sir Christopher Chope also backed a Canada-style arrangement, and said signing up to Chequers would bring no advantage to British businesses as “we would have to sign up to the EU rulebook to do business with them anyway, but this is a big opportunity for businesses here who don’t want to be bound by EU regulations in the domestic market or internationally”.

Sir Chris said the Government was “allowing itself to be held to ransom” over Northern Ireland, saying “no one here wants a hard border, it is up to the EU to decide whether it will put up whatever it says its rules require”.

He said he thought some in the Government, “the treasury in particular”, were “using every trick in the book to engineer a situation in which Brexit is frustrated”.