Gove: I back May’s deal
EXCLUSIVE: In run-up to crucial Commons vote, a bombshell intervention from ‘brains behind Brexit’
MICHAEL Gove today warns Tory MPs that Brexit is ‘by no means guaranteed’ if they vote down Theresa May’s deal.
In an intervention that could prove pivotal, the architect of the Leave campaign warns that the 100 Tories threatening to reject the plan on December 11 are putting Brexit itself ‘in peril’.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Gove says there is a risk Remainers will force a second referendum in the event of a defeat for No10.
‘Does [the deal] deliver 100 per cent of what I wanted? No,’ he writes. ‘But then we didn’t win 100 per cent of the vote ... you can’t always get everything that you want.’
The Environment Secretary spoke out as EU Council president Donald Tusk said Brussels is preparing for the UK to stay in the EU if Mrs May’s deal is rejected.
COUNTDOWN TO BREXIT D-DAY
MICHAEL Gove today warns mutinous Tories they will put Brexit at risk if they vote down Theresa May’s plan in ten days’ time.
In a powerful intervention, the former Vote Leave chief tells Eurosceptic MPs that Brexit is ‘under greater threat than at any time since the referendum’.
The Environment Secretary admits in an article in the Daily Mail that Mrs May’s withdrawal agreement is not ‘perfect’.
But he adds: ‘Does it deliver 100 per cent of what I wanted? No. But then we didn’t win 100 per cent of the vote on 23 June 2016. In politics, as in life, you can’t always get everything that you want.’
He dismisses those accusing the Prime Minister of betrayal, saying that her plan ‘delivers in crucial ways which honour the vote to leave’.
Downing Street will hope the intervention by the Cabinet’s leading Eurosceptic – and architect of the Brexit campaign – will prove pivotal in the campaign to gain a seemingly impossible Commons majority on December 11 and safeguard the PM’s job.
Mr Gove makes it clear he is ‘uncomfortable’ with parts of the withdrawal agreement, but argues it is much better than either a second referendum or a no-deal exit.
He warns his fellow Eurosceptics that those pushing for a second vote ‘might well succeed’ if Mrs May’s plan is voted down – a move he says would cause ‘disillusionment on a scale never seen before’.
And in a direct appeal to the 100 Tory MPs threatening to side with Labour to block the PM’s deal, he urges them to reconsider ahead of the ‘momentous’ vote: ‘Get this wrong and we may put in peril the Brexit the British people voted for and want us to deliver.’
His intervention throws a lifeline to Mrs May, who spent yesterday trying to persuade world leaders at the G20 summit in Argentina to back her proposals. In other developments: EU president Donald Tusk revealed Brussels is preparing for the possibility that Britain may stay in the EU if the Prime Minister’s plans are voted down;
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox claimed Parliament risked a ‘schism’ with the public if it jeopardised Brexit;
The Prime Minister said Labour was guilty of a ‘betrayal of the British people’ in opposing her plan;
Labour MP Ian Austin said his colleagues needed to ‘think carefully’ or risk an electoral backlash from Leave voters.
A YouGov poll found public support for Mrs May’s deal has almost doubled in a week, with most preferring it to no deal;
Remainers in Parliament launched a bid to seize control of Brexit if Mrs May’s deal is voted down, potentially opening the door to a second referendum;
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would put remaining in the EU on the ballot paper in any second referendum;
Last month Mr Gove came close to following Dominic Raab and Esther McVey out of the Cabinet after Mrs May agreed with Brussels a plan that fails to give the UK a unilateral exit route from the Irish backstop, which its critics say could keep the UK in the EU customs union indefinitely.
He spent 36 hours wrestling with his conscience before deciding to stay on.
Today he rallies firmly behind the PM, declaring that he will be supporting the withdrawal agreement ‘for all its flaws’. He says it will end free movement, meaning ‘future governments will now be free to implement immigration policies which they think best for the country’. The package will also mean an end to ‘sending huge sums of money to the EU every week’ – an issue he says was ‘a huge concern to a great many Leave voters’.
And he says it will finally right the ‘great injustice’ done to our fishing industry by entry into the EU 45 years ago. The fallout from the Brexit vote fractured Mr Gove’s close friendships with both David Cameron and Boris Johnson, who he helped persuade to lead the Leave campaign. He acknowledges that the against-theodds referendum victory in 2016 came at a ‘personal cost’, adding: ‘The impact of my decision on my family and friendships has been impossible to ignore.’
However, he insists the UK is right to leave the EU.
‘For too long, this over-bearing, undemocratic and profligate bureaucracy has told us what to do, protected vested interests, stood in the way of innovation and inflicted economic and social harm on its citizens,’ he writes.
‘The referendum offered us the chance to break free, to become the authors of our own national story, to bring democracy home. I believe in Brexit, I campaigned for it heart and soul. And now I want to see it through. And we should be in no doubt, seeing it through is by no means guaranteed.’
Condemning calls for a second referendum, he warns: ‘It would prove right all the criticisms we made of the EU and the Westminster establishment during the campaign – that they never listen; that they only answer to the people when it suits them; that they will simply never change.’
Mr Gove acknowledges that he is ‘uncomfortable’ with the backstop plan, which is designed to prevent a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.
But he says the EU is determined to prevent the backstop ever being invoked for fear it would give British firms ‘many of the benefits of EU membership, without most of the obligations’.
‘I would prefer to have had a mechanism to exit the backstop unilaterally,’ he writes.
‘But it’s important to look in detail at what the backstop entails – and to appreciate that however uncomfortable it is for the UK, it actually creates major problems for the EU.’
Mr Gove also takes a swipe at hardline Brexiteers who claim the UK can make a painless exit from the EU without a deal.
‘I know some of my colleagues would prefer a clean break – that we should walk away from the negotiating table and move towards a relationship based on World Trade Organisation rules,’ he writes. ‘I respect their position but I can’t share it. It is undeniable that no deal would cause considerable dislocation and disruption in the short term.’
And he warns those pushing for a soft Brexit, such as his ally Nick Boles, to think again and back the PM’s proposal.
Mr Gove warns that a Norwaystyle deal, inside the single market, ‘would mean less freedom to decide our laws, less control over our borders and we would still be sending significant sums to Brussels every year.’ He adds: ‘It’s better than EU membership, but worse than this deal.’
In an article for the Guardian last night, Mr Austin, who is Labour MP for Dudley North, said: ‘It is clearly not a perfect deal, but there was never going to be a perfect deal. My constituents voted to leave. They expect us to sort this out and we in the Labour party need to think carefully before rejecting it.’
He added: ‘It is very unlikely that voting the deal down would bring about the general election Labour members desperately want to see.’
‘Dislocation and disruption’
‘Steal Brexit from the public’
BRUSSELS is preparing for Britain to stay in the EU if Theresa May’s Brexit deal is rejected, Donald Tusk revealed yesterday.
The bloc won’t consider any further concessions if MPs vote down her withdrawal agreement, the European Council president said.
Speaking at the G20 summit in Argentina, Mr Tusk said the EU was preparing for all options, including the possibility that the UK might not leave at all.
He said: ‘If this deal is rejected in the Commons we are left with, as was already stressed a few weeks ago by Prime Minister May, an alternative. No deal or no Brexit at all. I want to reassure you that the EU is prepared for every scenario.’
It came as ardent Remainers including former Attorney General Dominic Grieve former yesterday launched a bid to control Brexit if MPs reject the deal on December 11.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox last night warned that Parliament could try to ‘steal’ Brexit from the British public.
He said: ‘I think if the public vote for Brexit, and Parliament were to try and steal that from the British public, then I think that would create a real schism between Parliament and the electorate.’ Some Eurosceptic MPs are urging Mrs May to go back to Brussels and demand fresh concessions, particularly on the socalled Irish backstop.
But Mr Tusk dismissed the possibility of talks being reopened, adding: ‘A few days before the vote in the House of Commons it is becoming more and more clear that this deal is the best possible, in fact the only possible one.’
Downing Street, which has also warned that Brexit could be lost if Mrs May’s deal is defeated, played down Mr Tusk’s comments. A spokesman said: ‘She has been very clear with him that the UK is leaving on March 29 next year.’
No10 said the Government was not making any preparations for Britain to stay in the EU.
Staying in the EU would require the revocation of Britain’s request to leave under Article 50. EU officials have previously warned that the UK could not necessarily expect to remain on the same terms, and is likely to lose the multi-billion pound annual rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith accused Mr Tusk of ‘arrogant meddling’ and said his hard line on future concessions was a bluff designed to assist Mrs May.
Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘This advice, from someone none of the British people voted for, should be put in the bin.’
But former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw, who is campaigning for a second referendum, said Mr Tusk’s comments made it clear it was not too late to prevent Britain leaving the EU.
He added: ‘Donald Tusk has confirmed that the option of staying in the EU is still available to us. Given that the Government’s deal is so clearly worse than the deal we’ve already got in the EU, and that it resolves none of the big questions of Brexit, it is only right that the final decision should now be handed back to the public.’
Meanwhile, Remainer backbenchers want an amendment that will give them the power to direct the Government in the event ministers lose the Commons vote. Labour’s Hilary Benn, chairman of the Brexit select committee, said it would allow Parliament ‘to take back control’ of the exit process. He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One the amendment rejects the current deal, blocks a no deal, and allows for amendments to be made to what the Government does next.
Mr Benn added: ‘It’s a technical amendment but its purpose is a very simple one, it’s to enable Parliament to take back control.
Labour’s Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer said the move had his ‘full support’.
Up to 100 Tory MPs are said to have pledged to vote down the so-called ‘meaningful vote’. A TV debate between Mrs May and Jeremy Corbyn has been scheduled for Sunday December 9. But last night Mr Corbyn was accused of ‘running scared’ by a senior Tory source, who added: ‘Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t have a [Brexit] plan and he’s afraid of being found out.’ Labour wants the debate on ITV and to scrap Tory proposals for a panel of Leavers and Remainers to ask questions.