Whitehall turns fire on Gove in row over legality of deal

NO 10 went to war with Michael Gove yesterday over explosive claims that the PM’s referendum deal can be torn up by EU judges.

The Justice Secretary was hit by the full might of the Whitehall machine – with ministers, loyal MPs and Government press officers sent to discredit his view.

But legal experts and other ministers sided with Mr Gove.

Dominic Raab, a former Foreign Office lawyer, said the deal Mr Cameron brought back from Brussels was less binding than ‘the kind of legal guarantee you get when you buy a dishwasher’.

The clash centres on no date being set for his agreement to be enshrined in EU treaties.

Last night, a copy of the deal with the 27 other EU member states was lodged at the UN, which the Government claims makes it ‘irre- versible’. But Mr Gove said: ‘The European Court of Justice is not bound by this agreement until treaties are changed and we don’t know when that will be.’

He said Mr Cameron was ‘absolutely right that this is a deal between 28 nations’.

But Mr Gove, also the Lord Chancellor, told the BBC: ‘The whole point about the European Court of Justice is that it stands above the nation states.’

Before 7am yesterday, Number Ten said Mr Gove’s claims were ‘not true’. Ex-attorney general Dominic Grieve was also deployed to contest the claim.

A later statement from aides to Jeremy Wright, current Attorney General, said although challenges could be brought to the court, the UK agreement had ‘very similar legal strength’ to existing treaty obligations.

But Raab, who is in charge of human rights legislation, said: ‘The EU’s own legal advice makes clear the UK deal is based on vague assurances.’

Leading lawyer Martin Howe QC, who wants to quit the EU, said: ‘Governmental claims that the summit deal is “legally binding” are highly misleading.’

The clash laid bare how rules devised by Mr Cameron and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood have stacked the odds are in favour of the Remain camp.

While Whitehall officials were free to rubbish Mr Gove’s argument, he could not call upon the help of a single civil servant.

It comes two days after the PM attacked Boris Johnson for joining the Out campaign.