DUP MP Ian Paisley included Nazi appeasement in a comparison with the EU as he urged the Conservatives to go back to the drawing board on their Brexit deal.
"Some of the huge issues that have driven our nation - whether it's been the corn laws, imperial preference in the 19th century, the appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s and our relationship with the EU or the EEC in the 1960s – all of those matters were about divisions in the Conservative Party," he said.
"It is not about how this side of the House is going to vote on the 11th of December that actually matters but what that side of the House is going to do.
"They have a choice – to stuff Northern Ireland into some adjunct of this kingdom and damage this kingdom forever and for generations, or else they can say there is a better way, there is an alternative and we will find it."
A Tory former Northern Ireland minister said he could not back the PM's deal unless there is "movement" on changing the backstop.
Sir Hugo Swire, who also served in the province during his time in the British army, said: "I do not think we can possibly place part of the United Kingdom in a position which is different to the rest. It is an appallingly dangerous precedent."
In a direct plea to the PM, the member for East Devon said: "I beg, try and get us some movement on that part of the deal.
"If you do then you will find there are those like me who will feel able to support it. If you do not you will find yourself short of votes next week."
His fellow Conservative Lee Rowley said he could not vote for the deal either, saying MPs are "obsessing about single commas when entire paragraphs do not work".
He said he had "nothing but admiration" for Mrs May in the way she had conducted the negotiations, but said "stamina is not a strategy" and that the proposition she had returned with was "very wanting".
