Gove: Brexit deal will win MPs’ vote

they were unlikely to be working in general practice in five years’ time, with stress and retirement cited as the main reasons.

The results were described as “gravely concerning” by the College. MINISTERS have revealed 49 people deported to Commonwealth countries have not been contacted by the Windrush task force.

The 49, who had been held in UK detention centres, were flown to Ghana and Nigeria last year – before the Windrush scandal erupted.

Parliamentary questions from Green Party MP Caroline Lucas to Home Office ministers have revealed that no “specific attempt” has been made to inform those deported that the task force exists. A COUPLE who have been covering their home in festive decor for Christmas for nearly 30 years have once again turned it into “Santa Claus’s helpers’ house”.

Birmingham pair John and Jean Copestick, both aged 75, began their preparation weeks ago in Barn Close, Stirchley.

While others were settling into the back-to-school routine in September and looking forward to Halloween, the Copesticks were sorting through the mountains of decorations they have collected over the years.

Mrs Copestick, who has 43 grandchildren and 23 greatgrandchildren, said: “If I could get my hubby to leave these MICHAEL GOVE has insisted the Government can win the crucial Commons vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, despite scores of Tory MPs threatening to vote against it.

As MPs prepare to begin five days of debate ahead of the vote on December 11, the Environment Secretary acknowledged it would be “challenging” to get it through the House. But while he accepted the deal was not “perfect”, he said the alternative was either “no deal or no Brexit”.

His warning came as shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said it was “inevitable” Labour would move a vote of no confidence in the Government if the deal was voted down.

Mr Gove, who was one of the leaders of the Leave campaign in the referendum in 2016, said he had reflected “long and hard” before deciding to back the plan.

But while there were aspects of the deal he found “uncomfortable”, he believed it was now the right way forward.

“I concluded, like lots of people, that while it is imperfect it is the right thing to do,” he told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“One of the things that I hope people will up all year round, I would. It’s so homely and warm and loving. It’s absolutely beautiful. It really is. I love it.”

She said local schoolchildren who visited recently had nicknamed the property “Santa Claus’s helpers’ house” and told of her joy that they and passers-by come to take a look. have the chance to do over the next nine days is to recognise that we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

“We have got to recognise that if we don’t vote for this, the alternatives are no deal or no Brexit.

“I believe that we can win the argument and win the vote. I know it is challenging.”

Downing Street will hope that the intervention of Mr Gove – who turned down the job of Brexit Secretary following the resignation of Dominic Raab – will help persuade some Brexiteers to back the agreement.

The Environment Secretary said the most difficult element of the deal was the Northern Ireland “backstop”, intended to prevent the return of a hard border with the Republic.

Brexiteers have warned it could see the UK tied to EU customs arrangements for years with no exit mechanism, while negotiations continue with Brussels on a trade deal. But Mr Gove insisted there was no incentive for the EU to prolong Britain’s stay in the backstop.

“The critical thing about the backstop is, however uncomfortable it is for the UK, it is more uncomfortable for the European Union,” he said.

And he dismissed a claim by French president Emmanuel Macron that the EU would be able to exploit the backstop to extract concessions from Britain over access to fisheries.

Meanwhile, Mrs May is facing another battle with Labour threatening to combine with other parties – including the DUP – to force ministers to publish the legal advice given by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.

MPs across Parliament have angrily accused ministers of ignoring the will of the House after they said only that they would release a “full reasoned political statement” on the legal position.