Michael Gove publicly backs Boris Johnson in Brexit row with stats chief after claim he was distancing himself from £350m figure
Foreign Secretary set to hold crunch talks with PM this week after his explosive EU exit blueprint
MICHAEL Gove was forced into backing Boris Johnson in his row with Britain’s stats chief over his blueprint for Brexit.
It comes after reports the Environment Secretary was trying to distance himself from his Cabinet colleague’s claims about how £350million a week could be spent after we exit the EU.
Mr Gove tweeted this morning: “In the debate on EU contributions it's important people look at what Boris actually wrote in his Telegraph article - not headlines.
“[The] debate should be forward looking on how to make most of life outside EU - not refighting referendum.”
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson is set to hold crunch talks with Theresa May this week after his explosive 10-point plan for Brexit plunged the Government into disarray.
And as well as angering the Prime Minister and being accused of “backseat driving” by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, he is locked in a bitter row with Britain’s stats chief.
The ex-Mayor of London repeated his claim Brexit will allow the Government to choose how it spends £350million a week, angering Sir David Norgrove.
The chief of the UK Statistics Authority said he was “disappointed” he had “misused” official figures by repeating Vote Leave’s key referendum pledge.
But Mr Johnson hit back in a strongly-worded letter of his own, accusing Mr Norgrove of a “wilful distortion of the text of my article”.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said she was "not going to get into" the war of words between Mr Johnson and Sir David but claimed the Foreign Secretary had "clarified" his remarks.
Asked if the spat was a distraction, she told reporters at a briefing: "The Foreign Secretary's views are well known, he's expressed them before during the referendum campaign and that's as much as I can add to that."
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Asked for the Prime Minister's view on Sir David's accusation that Mr Johnson had misused official statistics, she said: "Since then the Foreign Secretary has clarified what he was describing, as far as I understand it."
And Mr Gove voiced his support for his fellow Brexiteer in the row, despite allies of the minister appearing to reject suggestions he backed his vision for quitting the EU.
After the Foreign Secretary’s article on Saturday morning saw him come under attack it was being briefed both Mr Gove and Cabinet colleague Priti Patel were four-square behind him.
Some even suggested the pair had agreed to both resign if Mrs May rejected the plans and there were too many compromises in the negotiations with Brussels.
However a report in saw allies of Mr Gove reject that idea, saying: “If there was a suicide pact of that nature, you’d think Boris would have had the courtesy to tell us he was going to jump.”
And another friend of his claimed: “The first Michael knew about Boris’s article was when it was published on Friday night.”
But Mr Johnson has received the backing of prominent Tory Leavers for insisting Britain should not pay for access to the European market after Brexit.
John Redwood agreed, saying: "Many of us don't think there is any moral or political or legal reason to go on paying them once we have left.
“Indeed, I think it would be illegal to go on paying them once we have left."
Fellow Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg went further than Mr Johnson by insisting the UK should not agree to any "unnecessary divorce payout".
Writing in the Telegraph he said: "The positivity of Boris Johnson uses the settling of our account with the EU to boost public services.
"He wants to deliver on the promise to ensure better funding of the NHS by using the money we will save by leaving the EU, £10billion, or nearly £200million a week.
"That will come straight away as long as we do not agree some unnecessary divorce payout, and the next £150 million, which was implied if not formally pledged by the Leave campaign, can be found if we can grow our economy."
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood acknowledged there was now "discord" in the Conservative Party over Brexit, after Ms Rudd criticised Mr Johnson for releasing his opus at the time of the Parsons Green bomb attack.
But Mrs May's de facto deputy Damian Green said he would not be sacked over his intervention and suggested "people should calm down" after a "weekend of excitement".