Gove pledge on EU exit as he triggers no-deal emergency plan
MICHAEL Gove has insisted the UK will leave the European Union by October 31 despite the Government asking Brussels for a delay.
After suffering a defeat in the Commons over his Brexit plans on Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson got a senior diplomat to send an unsigned photocopy of a letter asking for an extension.
In a second note to European Council president Donald Tusk, the PM said the delay requested would be “deeply corrosive”.
Asked if he could guarantee the UK would leave the EU by Hallowe’en, Mr Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Yes, that’s our determined policy.
“We know the EU wants us to leave, we know we have a deal that allows us to leave.”
Mr Gove claimed the parliamentary defeat had increased the risk of a no-deal Brexit and he was “triggering” Operation Yellowhammer – the plan to deal with such a scenario. But Mr Gove told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “We are going to leave by October 31.
“We have the means and the ability to do so. Yesterday we had some people who voted for delay, voted explicitly to try to frustrate this process and to drag it out.
“I think actually the mood in the country is clear and the Prime Minister’s determination is absolute and I am with him in this – we must leave by October 31.”
Mr Johnson had been legally required to send the letter and stressed to Brussels he was only sending it at Parliament’s bidding.