SENIOR MPs have refuted claims that they are "plotting" with House of Commons clerks to block Brexit.
The rebuttal, by Anna Soubry and Hilary Benn, comes after reports in the Sunday Times that former attorney general Dominic Grieve has been working with clerks on a plan to pause Brexit by extending Article 50.
Soubry, who served as a minister under David Cameron, said it was less "conspiracy" and more just a case of "people doing their job".
READ MORE: Rebel MPs launch attempt to frustrate Theresa May's Brexit plans
Appearing on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, she said: "We really have to stop this narrative, this is not people plotting. This is people doing their job because of a profound failing by Government and if Government won't do its job then Parliament has to take this back."
Labour former minister Benn, who chairs the Commons Brexit committee, added: "MPs doing their job are not plotters, they are trying to sort out the mess the Prime Minister has created.
"We are facing a national crisis and there are many MPs in the House of Commons whose first priority is to ensure that we do not leave without a deal and therefore finding ways when we come to table amendments this week and debate on the 29th January how we stop that.
"To attack House of Commons clerks and suggest they're part of a conspiracy is a disgrace, our clerks are resolutely impartial", he added.
Earlier in the show, leading Cabinet Brexiteer Liam Fox has lashed out at moves by MPs to rewrite the Commons rule book in an attempt to "hijack" Britain's withdrawal from the EU.
The International Trade Secretary angrily accused backbenchers of trying to "steal" Brexit from the British people who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
At least two cross-party groups of MPs are planning to table amendments to enable backbenchers to take control of the business of the House to delay or frustrate Theresa May's Brexit plans.
One group led by Tory former minister Nick Boles and the senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper is attempting to block a no-deal Brexit – something May strongly opposes.
A second, led by the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, is said to want to go further and suspend the Article 50 withdrawal process.
Fox warned that the political consequences if Parliament was to go back on the referendum result, would be "astronomical".
"You've got a Leave population and a Remain Parliament," he said.
"Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit process because Parliament said to the people of this country 'We make a contract with you, you will make the decision and we will honour it'.
"What we are now getting is some of those who always absolutely opposed the result of the referendum trying to hijack Brexit and in fact steal the result from the people."
Downing Street described the moves as "extremely concerning" and said they underlined the need for MPs who supported Brexit to vote for it in the House.
However Tory former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan - who is backing the Boles-Cooper amendment – rejected claims MPs were trying to stage a constitutional "coup".
"To describe it as a coup is overblown," she told Sky News's Ridge on Sunday programme.
"It's a strange coup that starts with a whole bunch of democratically elected Members of Parliament."
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