'THERE is no plot!' MP for Bournemouth East Tobias Ellwood moved quickly to disown the report trailing last night's Panorama programme which appeared to suggest he was part of a group planning to launch a devastating no-confidence motion should the new Conservative Party leader opt for a no-deal Brexit.

Given the Tories' miniscule Commons majority any such move would bring down the government triggering a general election.

In a report trailing 'The Race for Number 10', and published on its news website, the BBC said: "A dozen or so" Conservative MPs could support a vote of no confidence to stop a no-deal Brexit, defence minister Tobias Ellwood has told the BBC."

It said Mr Ellwood had told Panorama that: "Many backbenchers and ministers would rebel if the UK faced leaving the EU on the 31 October deadline without a legal agreement.

"Asked if Conservatives opposed to a no-deal Brexit had the "numbers", Mr Ellwood told Panorama: "I believe that absolutely is the case," said the online report.

"I think a dozen or so members of Parliament would be on our side, would be voting against supporting a no deal, and that would include ministers as well as backbenchers."

Speaking to the Bournemouth Echo, Mr Ellwood branded the interpretation put on his statements for Panorama, presented by journalist, John Pienaar, as: 'ridiculous', adding: "I just think John Pienaar’s got ahead of himself. Its sensationalism, a little bit."

He said: "They (the BBC) got the spirit right, there is genuine, absolute concern about the dangers of no deal whilst at the same time absolutely wanting to leave the EU."

He said that if the UK didn't leave, 'my party is in dire straits and that's absolutely a given'.

"How you leave the EU is then up for debate and the genuine concern which arose in the lead up to the 31st March is why the deadline was extended the first time, because of the calamitous dangers that no deal brings," he explained.

He admitted the situation was 'grave' and that there were 'many ministers talking about it'. However, he did not deny the existence of chat groups about the issue, explaining: "The purpose is to say how do we persuade the two key figures here to avoid no deal?"

He said he wanted to honour his party's manifesto commitment to 'leave in an orderly fashion that is beneficial to businesses, many of them internationally-focussing like the ones we have in Bournenouth that would be severely harmed if we bailed out without anything in place at all."

Reaction to Mr Ellwood's statements has been strong, with some commentators on social media branding him a 'traitor', another claiming he was 'playing a dangerous game with our country', and a Twitter user called LofD EDGE urging 'tory members in dorwset East' to get in contact as they are 'organising a deselection of Tobias Ellwood'.