Prime Minister Theresa May is set to meet with her cabinet for crunch Brexit talks in Chequers on Friday in an effort to clarify a plan for Britain’s future relationship with the European Union.
Ms Stuart, who chaired the Vote Leave campaign, warned the cabinet must work in the national interest or risk intensifying countrywide divisions after Brexit.
On Friday, Mrs May is expected to propose a so-called “third-way” arrangement that would see the UK stay in a single market with the EU indefinitely.
The plans are expected to potentially allow the European Courts of Justice to have a say on trade disputes and see Britain enter a single market on goods with Brussels.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ms Stuart said: “I tell you what my expectation would be, it’s that we actually stop thinking that this is about individual personalities, or stop thinking this is about just holding one party together or another.
“It’s actually acting in the national interest, in which case I would expect everybody around that table to actually put aside their personal ambitions and start to drill down to what leaving means.”
She added: “At the moment, the fudge which seems to be on offer is that we are not staying in the single market but a single market of form.
“We no longer have that freedom of movement but a different form, which means that then people are left thinking that we haven’t really left – it only looks like that.
“The divisions which we have seen over the last two years between London and the rest of the country will only deepen, the instability will continue, the uncertainty will continue and it will be bad for the whole nation.”
Downing Street officials have drawn up the “third-way” model after two earlier proposals sparked Cabinet divisions.
Mrs May favours a ‘customs partnership’ with Brussels, which would see Britain collecting EU import tariffs.
Influential backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg warned on Monday that Mrs May could be forced out of office if she fails to deliver Brexit.
He said: “At Chequers, Mrs May must stick to her righteous cause and deliver what she has said she would.”
