French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian yesterday rejected any further delay to Britain's exit from the EU, now scheduled for October 31 but clouded by political turmoil in London.

"In the current circumstances, it's no! ... We are not going to go through this every three months," Le Drian said on Le Grand Rendez-vous Europel/ CNEWS/Les Echos programme.

"The (British) say that

they want to put forward other solutions, alternative

arrangements so that they can leave," he said, referring to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's efforts to find a way out of the backstop mechanism for

Northern Ireland, the main sticking point.

"But we have not seen them and so it is 'no'... let the British authorities tell us the way forward," he said.

"Let them take responsibility for their situation... They have to tell us what they want."

Britain was originally meant to leave the European Union on March 29 but

with parliament deadlocked the British government ended up negotiating two delays, the latest to October 31.

Meanwhile, the British government insisted yesterday that Boris Johnson would fight on as prime minister despite seeing a top cabinet ally quit and his do-or-die Brexit strategy blocked by parliament.

Johnson's awful run at home got worse with the resignation on Saturday of Conservative heavyweight Amber Rudd from her work and pensions post.

Rudd was a moderate member of former prime minister Theresa May's government whose endorsement Johnson coveted during his successful UK leadership challenge.

But Rudd said yesterday that

she could no longer be part of the team that oversees what both businesses and the markets fear would be a very messy "no-deal" divorce. "I believe (Johnson) is trying to get a deal with the EU. I am just saying what I have seen in government is that there is this huge machine preparing for no-deal," she told BBC television.