Gove gives PM a breather – but MPs will decide fate

Environment Secretary Michael Gove yesterday gave the Prime Minister the breathing space she needs. But if anyone believes this crisis is over, because committed Brexiteer Mr Gove has resisted the temptation of quit the Cabinet over the deal Theresa May has done with Brussels, they are mistaken. It is still difficult to see how the Prime Minister can survive this crisis in her leadership. A momentum is building. Mrs May’s future looks to be going only in one direction.

Nevertheless she may yet survive for long enough to put her deal to Parliament, once the rest of the European Union nations and the EU Parliament have given it their backing. And MPs who are contemplating rejecting the deal at that point – which looks to be the most likely outcome at this stage – need to carefully consider whether they are acting in the best interests of their constituents, as they will claim, if they vote it down.

Mr Gove, however, would have been a loss to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he had decided to go. The fact he has rejected an apparent offer to become the third Brexit Secretary in two years and also stepped back from the brink of resignation presumably keeps him at Defra for the foreseeable future. Liam Fox, an- other committed Brexit supporter and reluctant supporter of the PM’s Chequer’s plan, is also giving Mrs May support. Some might think that if those two ministers can hold their noses for long enough to see this deal at least reach Parliament, they too should support it.

But there are plenty of bumps on the road before MPs get to cast their vote for or against the deal. Yesterday the number of Tory members who have written to the chairman of the 1922 committee Graham Brady pressing for a Conservative leadership battle was reportedly growing. It looks likely that the necessary number of letters – 48 – will be reached. However that doesn’t necessarily mean Mrs May would lose any such vote. Although the Brexit deal she has struck is not popular with either side in this polarised debate, the alternative – quitting the EU with no deal – is something she quite properly decided she could not in all conscience impose on the British people. Whatever it means for her political future, she was right to make that call. She will now stand or fall by it. And she may feel relief that, providing she can survive as Prime Minister, the final judgement on her Brexit deal is out of her hands. It will be MPs who have to live with the consequences of their decision.

On this day