Pro-Brexit Indian-origin MP joins Stand Up 4 Brexit rebellion

Indian-origin Conservative party MP and former UK Cabinet minister Priti Patel is among 20 party rebels who are challenging British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit strategy with a 'Stand Up 4 Brexit' campaign.

The grassroots drive against any negotiations with the European Union (EU) that could lead to a so-called soft Brexit is being backed by another ex-minister Ian Duncan Smith and is expected to mount pressure on May to ditch her Chequers plan, which is rejected by Eurosceptic MPs within her Conservative party.

Stand Up 4 Brexit supporters, who also include former foreign secretary Boris Johnson's key ally Tory MP Conor Burns, pledge to fight plans to keep the EU rules on British goods and free movement in terms of migration.

Patel, a leading pro-Brexit voice in the lead up to the referendum in favour of Britain's exit from the EU in June 2016, has previously called on the government to be "tougher" in its negotiations with Brussels.

The Stand Up 4 Brexit campaign is building momentum as Johnson, the poster boy for the pro-Brexit camp, launched a scathing attack on Theresa May's plans in his weekly newspaper column in 'The Daily Telegraph' on Monday, saying the approach agreed at Chequers "means disaster" for Britain.

Johnson, who had resigned as government minister in July in protest at the deal agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers the British Prime Minister's country residence likened the Brexit negotiations to a wrestling match, in which an EU "victory" was inevitable... "with the UK lying flat on the canvas and 12 stars circling symbolically over our semi-conscious head".

Johnson said negotiations based on the Chequers plan had so far seen the EU take "every important trick", adding, "The UK has agreed to hand over GBP 40 billion of taxpayers' money for two-thirds of diddly squat [nothing]."