Brexiteer Michael Gove SAVES Theresa May from the No10 boot by deciding to stay in the Cabinet after 36 hours of intense deliberation
MICHAEL Gove saved Theresa May from the No10 boot yesterday by deciding to stay in the Cabinet.
The Leave boss’s decision to press ahead with her wobbling Brexit deal came after 36 hours of agonising about whether to quit. But Mr Gove signalled he was staying to stop further capitulation to Brussels.
His lifeline came as Amber Rudd sensationally returned to the Cabinet to replace departed Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.
Ms Rudd bounced back just seven months after she quit as Home Secretary over the Windrush immigration scandal.
The PM’s battle to restore order at her top table came as she faced a likely confidence vote next week.
Brexiteers were scrambling to submit the 48 letters they required to trigger a ballot.
And in another day of drama in Westminster it emerged:
- MICHAEL Gove decided to stay on in the Cabinet to try to salvage a future trade deal with the EU alongside a “Pizza Club” of rebel Brexiteer ministers;
- MRS May appointed relatively unknown health minister Stephen Barclay to replace Dominic Raab as Brexit Secretary. But she stripped the post of any involvement in EU talks, preferring to take full control herself;
- THE PM also faced a fresh fight with Brussels after European countries told chief negotiator Michel Barnier to toughen up the trade part of the deal. Mr Barnier warned diplomats not to engage in any bargaining even if they see it necessary to complete the deal.
- MRS May’s deputy David Lidington stunned Cabinet colleagues by declaring the UK could just walk away from the Irish backstop treaty, daring the EU to sue us.
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The Sun understands that Mrs May’s critics are still 11 short despite four more MPs going public in a plea for a change of leadership.
Government whips were summoned from their constituencies to London to prepare for the fight, as Mrs May pleaded with 100 local Tory chiefs to back her.
Government sources were last night braced for a leadership vote on Tuesday, with the PM’s allies claiming they were confident she would win comfortably.
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