London: Tony Abbott is being lauded by Brexit supporters and told to butt out by Remainers after the former prime minister savaged Theresa May's Brexit plan and urged her to pull Britain out of the EU with no deal.
Writing in The Spectator magazine, Abbott accused May of "surrender" and said the EU had judged that she is "desperate for whatever deal she can get".
He urged the British Prime Minister to set out how she would handle a "no deal" whereby Britain would exit the EU on March 29 with no agreement on its future trading relationship with the EU.
Abbott said Britain had nothing to fear by trading on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, saying "it works pretty well for Australia".
Abbott's article has been widely shared and promoted by prominent Brexiteers like former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who are already incensed by May's Brexit plan.
May wants to maintain the EU's regulatory standards after Brexit, so as to avoid a hard border with Ireland and preserve the peace agreement between the north and the south.
Tony Abbott has weighed in with some Brexit advice for the UK. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
David Campbell Bannerman, a UKIP turned Conservative member of the European Parliament who met Abbott in Brussels, told Fairfax Media that Abbott was qualified to give such advice to May and that it was "very welcome".
"It's very important advice, I really admire him for doing not just one trade deal in a year with one of your biggest customers but three trade deals in one year with your three biggest customers," he said.
"He's not threatening Britain, he's advising us, he's not doing what Obama did which was saying, 'If you don't vote to stay in the EU then you'll be at the back of the queue'. That was a direct threat, this is good advice.
"We are kindred sprits, we are very close, Australia and the UK, and you're great friends and it's very welcome because it shows that some of the nonsense people talked about - that a trade deal would take five to 10 years - is complete rubbish," he said.
But Anna McMorrin, an MP and leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign seeking a second referendum, said it was for the British people to decide the shape of Brexit, not the former Australian prime minister.
“The British people did not vote for a disastrous no deal Brexit," she said. "It should be for the British people to have the final say on Brexit, not Tony Abbott."
She said that the vote to leave the EU was not a vote for a "disastrous no deal Brexit".
"They did not vote to make themselves poorer, nor did they vote to allow ideological Brexiters to drag the country out of the EU at any cost," she said.
“The Brexit negotiations are a mess, Parliament is paralysed and the Brexit that was promised to the British people in 2016 looks increasingly undeliverable.
"That’s why more and more people from all walks of life are calling for a people’s vote on whatever emerges from the Brexit process."
On Wednesday, May bought herself more political breathing space after addressing the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers.
Her leadership is the subject of daily speculation in the press, but one MP in the room said she handled MPs' questions well and there was no tension or anger towards her.