GREEN Party leader Caroline Lucas called today for an all-women cabinet to assemble and prevent a “no-deal” Brexit.

Ms Lucas asked 10 female MPs to join her in a “cabinet of women” to “stop the dangerous pursuit of a crash-out Brexit.”

Such a cabinet would “press the pause button” on Brexit and offer a new EU referendum, she argued in The Guardian, with this proposing Remain versus the “latest government plan,” which she said would most likely be to leave without a withdrawal agreement.

Ms Lucas said the cabinet should be comprised of women because they “are able to reach out to those they disagree with and co-operate to find solutions,” though she did not explain how the hypothetical cabinet of Remain supporters would reach out to the majority of the electorate who voted Leave. She named Tory defectors Heidi Allen and Anna Soubry, Conservative MP Justine Greening, Labour’s Emily Thornberry and Yvette Cooper, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon in her line-up, which was rapidly attacked on social media for being entirely white.

Creating such a cabinet would entail winning a no-confidence vote against Boris Johnson’s government. Ms Lucas said a Corbyn government would not be possible as it would not be able to bring different political parties together. It is not clear how such a cabinet would win the necessary backing from across the House of Commons.

Ms Lucas wrote as the government drew up a list of companies that could be bailed out in the event of financial problems consequent on leaving the EU without a deal.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit “war cabinet” is expected to discuss the bailout plans, known as Operation Kingfisher, this week.

The construction and manufacturing sectors are expected to be hardest hit if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

The UK’s economy shrank for the first time since 2012 in the second quarter of this year, as the manufacturing and construction sectors slumped.