A SOUTH Essex MP has claimed a second Brexit referendum “would not be appropriate” - while another MP found 85 per cent of his surveyed constituents do not support the withdrawal deal.

Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois advocated the case for the leaving the European Union when he appeared on the James Whale Show, on talkRADIO, yesterday.

The main meat of the interview was when presenter James Whale challenged him on whether or not there should be a second referendum on leaving the EU.

Mr Francois robustly argued there should not be, not least because the majority in favour of leaving in 2016 was more than one million votes.

In total 17,410,742 voted to leave the union, with 16,141,241 voting to remain.

Separately. Southend East and Rochford MP James Duddridge has conducted a survey of his constituents this month - with 60 per cent of those involved stating they did not support a second referendum.

The survey, which was posted on Mr Duddridge’s website and social media accounts received 489 responses from residents.

Of all of the respondents, 60 per cent of them said they did not support a second referendum.

As a result of the survey, 85 per cent of respondents suggested they would not support the Withdrawal Agreement currently being put forward by the Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Both Mr Duddridge and Mr Francois previously submitted letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister, and spoke out strongly against her proposed deal.

During the interview, Mr Francois also went on to explain the cost of the original referendum, according to figures recently released by the Electoral Commission was just shy of £130 million and it would not be appropriate to spend another even more taxpayers’ money, to ask voters a question that they had already answered two years previously.

He said: “I hope I was able to explain to talkRADIO listeners why it is so important that we honour the spirit of the referendum and make sure that we leave the European Union, as the public instructed us to do in that historic vote.

“As ever with James Whale, there was plenty of banter and I enjoyed the experience and I would venture to say so did he.”

Mr Duddridge has previously spoken openly on his concerns on the proposed withdrawal agreement.

He said: “I stand by what I have previously said about the Brexit agreement proposed by the Prime Minister.

“This agreement keeps us a supplicant puppy of a federal block, it threatens the union of the United Kingdom, it forces us to pay £39 billion to the European Union which could be spent on other priorities, and it stops us from making our own trade agreements with the rest of the world.

“Fundamentally, this agreement is not the Brexit the electorate voted for.”

“I am pleased to read from the results that the majority of constituents in Rochford and Southend East who responded to my survey are in agreement with me. It has impassioned me further to continue to fight for my constituents to ensure that Brexit is the opportunity they voted for, not the half-in half-out lose, lose situation being proposed.”