TORY rebels who are trying to topple Theresa May are risking the “most appalling chaos” that would damage Britain’s international reputation, Jeremy Hunt has warned.

The intervention from the Foreign Secretary came as the Prime Minister won plaudits from the other side of the Brexit negotiating table with Ireland’s Simon Coveney, praising her “steel" and "determination”.

Speaking from Teheran, Mr Hunt said Mrs May had “perhaps got the most difficult job of any prime minister or president in the western world at the moment”.

In a direct message to Conservative colleagues, he said: “Seeking to remove her risks the most appalling chaos that could be immensely damaging to our national reputation but also destabilising and potentially stopping us getting through to the other side of Brexit.

“That is why when people think about this, people will realise that backing her is the right thing to do,” Mr Hunt declared.

With the talks on the withdrawal agreement completed and those on the future UK-EU partnership set to be so by Sunday’s special EU summit, a bid to boost the PM’s political fortunes at home came from Dublin.

"People have underestimated Theresa May over and over again; they're wrong to. She is a very steely, determined person,” declared Mr Coveney.

“She has got a good deal for Britain, for the United Kingdom as a whole I should say, and she has followed through also on her commitments to Ireland and the EU," he added.

Mrs May is expected to travel to Brussels this week to meet Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, to effectively sign off the future framework policy before EU leaders gather in the Belgian capital to rubber-stamp it.

But while the Brexit process continues, the PM has one eye over her shoulder to see if Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the Tories’ 1922 backbench committee, has received the required number of 48 signatures to trigger a no-confidence vote.

By Monday evening, the rebellion appeared to have stalled with just 26 names publicly declared.

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister and member of the European Research Group, who has been coordinating the letters campaign, appeared less than confident, saying: “Who knows now? Will MPs do what they said?”

Mrs May held talks in No 10 with Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith, the former party leader, and Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, to try to quell the threat to her leadership.

MPs contemplating joining the rebellion have to consider: who would replace the PM if she were toppled; how the public would perceive such a move, and if she won any no-confidence vote, that she could be strengthened and could not be challenged for another year.

Appearing at the CBI’s annual conference, the PM issued a warning to her political rivals, that Brexit was not an exercise in "political theory" but something that affected people's everyday lives and livelihoods.

“Jobs depend on us getting this right,” she declared, adding: “What we have agreed unashamedly puts our future economic success, and the livelihoods of working families up and down this country, first."

In his speech to the same conference, Jeremy Corbyn said Brexit could be a "catalyst for economic transformation" in the UK and that a "good Brexit plan" should include a "radical programme of investment" and fundamental changes to the way the economy worked.

Elsewhere, Spain threatened to withdraw support for the draft withdrawal agreement, stressing how the future of Gibraltar should be dealt with separately by Madrid and London and not tied up in a future UK-EU trade deal.

*Last night, the Government narrowly defeated a Labour amendment to its Finance Bill, which enacts Budget measures, by just five votes; 292 votes to 287.

Labour's proposal aimed to force UK ministers to review the impact of increases to the personal allowance on child poverty and equality.

But, perhaps significantly, eight MPs from the DUP - the minority Tory Government’s supposed allies - voted for Labour's new clause eight. All 292 MPs who opposed Labour's amendment were Tories.