A SOUTHEND MP has hit back at the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan, saying it is not the withdrawal his constituents campaigned for.

There have been growing cracks in the Conservative government over the deal proposed for when Britain leaves the European Union, with some arguing that what Mrs May is proposing is “a bad deal for Britain”.

This has already led to the resignations of former Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Now, James Duddridge, MP for Rochford and Southend East, has also added his voice to the growing unhappiness.

In a statement sent to the Echo, Mr Duddridge said: “I was deeply disappointed at the Chequers plan and subsequent White Paper. This is not the Brexit I campaigned for and my constituents supported.

“I want an independent United Kingdom not the watered-down version of Brexit that these documents represent. The White Paper breaches the red lines.

“It involves us paying vast sums to the EU, being a rule taker, side tracks parliament, fails to support our financial services and subjects us to continued interference of the European Court of Justice. As it stands I cannot support the government’s position.”

He proposed an alternative, in which the government tells the French and German governments we will move to established World Trade Organisation rules.

He added: “We should be global players. Life outside the European Union can be bright and optimistic. It doesn’t need to be a depressing trudge into the technical and pessimistic. We need to reassert ourselves as a global leader in trade and commerce, and not be a supplicant puppy to a federal block.”

PM Theresa May has argued that the deal proposed is positive for the country. She told the BBC: “We have come to an agreement on the proposal we are putting to the European Union which absolutely delivers on the Brexit we voted for. They voted for us to take back control of our money, our law and our borders. That is exactly what we will do.”