Britain’s former finance minister, Philip Hammond, is confident that parliament could block a no-deal Brexit if unelected people around Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to force such a disorderly outcome, Reuters reports.

Hammond said on Wednesday demands to remove the Irish border backstop were part of a wrecking strategy by unidentified advisers around Johnson that put the UK on an “inevitable” course towards a no-deal Brexit.

“To set the bar for negotiations so high that we inevitably leave without a deal would be a betrayal,” Hammond told BBC radio.

Any attempt to bypass MPs would propel the UK into a constitutional crisis, Hammond said, adding that “parliament is clearly opposed to a no-deal exit.”