Rushanara Ali, one of the prominent Bangladeshi-origin MPs in the UK Parliament, has taken the lead to demand that the House of Commons votes against any plans by a new British Prime Minister to exit the European Union (EU) without any deal in place.

The Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, the east London area dominated by Bangladeshi migrants, made her representation in the Commons this week as frontrunner Boris Johnson and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt continue to campaign to win the race to replace Theresa May at Downing Street later this month.

Addressing UK Chancellor Philip Hammond, Ali highlighted that a no-deal Brexit would be a “disaster” for the UK, impacting jobs and livelihood.

“Both the Conservative leadership candidates supporting a no-deal Brexit should stop selling the country out in order to serve their own political ambitions,” said Ali, asking Hammond to join the Opposition Labour Party benches in voting against any parliamentary vote in favour of a no-deal Brexit in future.

Hammond, the senior Conservative Party MP who himself has been an outspoken critic of a no-deal Brexit, declined to commit himself to any future Parliament vote but did agree with Ali on the dangers of leaving the EU by the October 31 deadline without any deal in place with the economic bloc.

The minister said in his response to Ali: “I will do everything I can to make sure we avoid a no-deal exit. The government’s analysis shows that a no-deal exit would mean that all the regions, nations and sectors of the UK’s economy would have lower economic output compared to today’s arrangements.

“It is important that we all understand that preparing for no deal – which is a perfectly sensible thing to do because it might happen to us without our volition – is not the same as avoiding the effects of no deal.”

It has been estimated that a no-deal Brexit could cost Britain around £90 billion but both contenders for the post of Prime Minister have refused to rule it out for fear of alienating pro-Brexit voters within the nearly 160,000 Conservative Party membership, who will be casting their postal ballots in the leadership contest this month.

The new Conservative Party leader is set to be announced on July 23, with caretaker PM Theresa May set to formally hand over charge to the winning candidate at Downing Street a few days later.