Michael Gove ‘will delay Brexit for another YEAR to avoid crashing out with no deal’

He's quoted as saying: "Simply trying to go for no deal before the UK is properly prepared will lead to a general election with Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street and risks Brexit being cancelled altogether.

"These are the most complex negotiations in our peacetime history, it’s not enough to believe in Brexit, you’ve got to be able to deliver it."

RUDD TO BACK GOVE

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd is now considering supporting Gove in his Tory leadership bid after talks with Boris Johnson stalled over his support for no-deal.

She wanted Boris to budge on his pledge to leave the EU on October 31 with or without a deal but the former Foreign Secretary refused.

Tory leadership candidates are desperate to win Rudd’s endorsement. She heads the 60-strong caucus of Tory moderates - dubbed the ‘One Nation’ group.

Rudd sparked rumours she could eventually back Michael Gove after she praised him on Twitter.

She posted a picture of herself and the Environment Secretary visiting her constituency after agreeing government backing for her campaign to designate Beachy Head East a conservation zone to protect the coast from harmful fishing.

Gove’s intervention makes him the first Brexiteer leadership candidate to say that Britain cannot leave without a deal on October 31.

TRUMP BACKS BORIS

One former Cabinet Minister told The Sun on Wednesday: “Everyone now believes it will be Boris against Michael – the contest really that we should have had 3 years ago. It’s like time has stood still.”

A Cabinet source added: “The first thing the new PM will have to do is ask for an extension. Only Boris or Gove could carry that off.”

A Conservative Home poll said Boris Johnson remained the clear front-runner among Tory members with 33 per cent of the vote.

Dominic Raab is second on 15.5 per cent with Michael Gove third on 12.4 per cent.

Gove has cashed in on a series of mistakes by Jeremy Hunt.

Tory sources on Wednesday claimed he upset MPs by publicising his call for Theresa May to step down last week.

And Eurosceptic Tories were livid after he flip-flopped on Brexit and branded a No Deal “political suicide”.

Trump yesterday stated his support for Boris Johnson to be Britain’s next PM — and revealed other Tory leadership hopefuls have also begged for his backing.

The US President spoke glowingly of the ex-Foreign Secretary in a world exclusive interview with The Sun ahead of his three-day state visit to London, starting on Monday.

His bombshell intervention into the Conservatives’ contest — just a few days before MPs start voting — is a major breach of protocol.

It risks sparking a full-blown diplomatic rift between London and Washington if the mop-haired former London mayor fails to take the Tory crown.