Michael Gove bet Matt Hancock a ‘good bottle of wine’ MPs will pass Boris Johnson’s brexit deal by majority of three
MICHAEL Gove has made a bet that MPs will pass Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal by a wafer thin majority of just three.
The senior Tory has staked ‘a good bottle of wine’ on the precise figure with fellow Cabinet minister Matt Hancock.
The Health Secretary wins if the margin is both bigger or smaller than three, The Sun can reveal.
A vote on the PM’s new Deal, which could come as early as today, is still on a knife edge with more than 20 Tory and Labour MPs yet to declare their thinking.
But a source close to Mr Hancock, a Suffolk MP who represents the nation’s biggest racing town, said: “No representative of Newmarket is going to turn down evens odds on that”.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove revealed the bet during an interview with Sky News’s Sophy Ridge yesterday.
Asking if he was a betting man, would be put money on the PM’s deal passing by October 31, Mr Gove said: “Yes, I have”.
But quizzed on how much, he added: “That’s between me and the Health Secretary”.
Mr Gove also revealed the risk of leaving with No Deal has increased as they cannot guarantee that the EU will grant an extension.
He said he would chair a Cabinet committee meeting today to ensure the next stage of No Deal preparations is in place.
"It means that we are triggering Operation Yellowhammer," he said - the Government's full plan for leaving without a deal.
"We are preparing to ensure that if no extension is granted, that we have done everything possible in order to leave without a deal."
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