Senior Brexiteer Steve Baker has said he has rejected a ministerial job in the first sign of dissent aimed at new Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The former junior Brexit minister said he could not “repeat my experience of powerlessness” he had felt.
But he added that he had “total confidence” in Boris Johnson to leave the EU by October 31, warning “disaster awaits otherwise”.
Baker is the deputy chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) of backbench Tory Eurosceptics which was influential in the downfall of Theresa May.
It came as Johnson was making a series of further appointments to his government after dramatically reshaping the cabinet.
The prime minister is using the reshuffle to promote allies and clear out MPs who oppose his stance on Brexit.
In May, the hardline Brexiteer Baker revealed he was weighing up whether to stand in the Tory leadership race.
The former minister claimed to have “a degree of support” from across the country he “could never have foreseen”, including from Conservative MPs. In the end, he did not stand.
Earlier this year, Baker introduced himself on Sky News as “Brexit hardman Steve Baker”.