Gove insists UK will leave EU on 31 October
Michael Gove has said the risk of the UK leaving the EU without a deal had “grown” as a result of yesterday’s vote.
Reasserting the government’s belief that Brexit will definitely happen on October 31, the cabinet minister told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “the risk of leaving without a deal has actually increased because we cannot guarantee that the European council will grant an extension.”
He added that he would chair a cabinet meeting later today in order to trigger Operation Yellowhammer – the government’s contingency plan to prepare for a possible no-deal outcome. “We’re preparing to ensure that if no extension is granted that we have done everything possible in order to leave without a deal,” said Gove.
Although the prime minister has already been forced to send a letter requesting a further Brexit delay, Gove insisted that “parliament can’t change the determination” of the government to leave the EU by Halloween.
“We know that the European Union want us to leave, we know that we have a deal that allows us to leave,” he said. “We are going to leave on October 31st. We have the means and ability to do so.”
He added that he was optimistic that the government would get enough votes in order to get Johnson’s deal through the Commons – in which case there would be no extension.
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Rudd says she supports Johnson’s deal, despite it being worse than May’s
The former Tory minister Amber Rudd has said she feels Theresa May’s Brexit deal was better than the one currently being offered by Johnson.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge, Rudd, now an independent, said: “I don’t think it’s as good as Theresa May’s deal. I regret the fact that we don’t have effectively a backstop for the whole of the country. Instead it’s only Northern Ireland.
“In terms of the economy, it’s very good for Northern Ireland but it’s less good for the union. I thought that Theresa May’s deal was the right deal. I think this is not as good.”
However, Rudd stressed that she still supported Johnson’s deal. “We have to make sure that we don’t leave with no deal … I want to support it and I will, and I think, not all of us, but most of us former Conservatives, who supported the Letwin amendment will do so as well,” she said.
“I think it’s absolutely right to say we don’t want to leave with no deal but we do want to leave with a deal and this deal from the prime minister is good enough for me.”
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Farage says he would rather a Brexit extension followed by a general election
The Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, has also been talking to Sophy Ridge this morning. After being mocked on Thursday for his seeming own-goal in defending the law that would delay Brexit, Farage reaffirmed to the Sky presenter that he would rather have a Brexit extension followed by a general election than see Boris Johnson’s deal being passed in the Commons.
“I want to leave on the 31st October with a clean-break Brexit because that’s the only Brexit worth having,” he said.
“I want a general election, so an extension for a few weeks in which we can have a general election is a much better outcome than signing up to a treaty that becomes part of international law that binds us in foreign policy and in many, many other areas.”
He added: “We are going to have to be on a level playing field with the rest of Europe, which means we still haven’t taken back control of our laws. This is not Brexit.”
He described Johnson’s deal as “a new EU treaty”, adding that “all it does is take us on to the next stage of negotiations”.
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Our video team were at the huge People’s Vote march in London yesterday, following some of the estimated one million anti-Brexit protesters as they demanded a fresh referendum. You can watch their work here:
On the ground with People’s Vote marchers: ‘It’s not done by a long way’ – video
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McDonnell says Johnson behaved ‘a bit like a spoilt brat’
John McDonnell has said Boris Johnson has behaved “a bit like a spoilt brat” after the prime minister sent an unsigned letter to the EU asking for a delay, and then a second arguing against it.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on her Sunday show, the shadow chancellor said: “He may well be in contempt of parliament or the courts themselves. Parliament made a decision, he should abide by it, and this idea that you send another letter contradicting the first, I think it flies in the face of what the parliament and the courts have decided.”
He added that another meaningful vote on Johnson’s Brexit deal would be “pointless” until MPs had been able to scrutinise the legislation needed to implement it.
“Until you see the legislation, you don’t know the detail, and as someone said yesterday, the devil is in the detail,” McDonnell said.
While he said an amendment for a second referendum on Brexit would “almost inevitably” come up in parliament over the next few days, McDonnell would not confirm whether Labour would bring one forward, instead emphasising that the party would argue for a general election.
“In a general election we would negotiate a sensible option for Brexit and we’d take that back to the people,” he said.
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Morning, it’s Amy Walker here. I’ll be kicking off the live blog today.
The Sunday papers worked late into last night reacting to Boris Johnson’s defeat in the Commons yesterday. The Observer carried a picture of the People’s Vote march alongside news of the prime minister’s “humiliating defeat”. The Mirror took a similar approach, declaring that “Blustering Boris” had been “beaten again”.
Meanwhile, others, such as the Sunday Times, painted a picture of a dedicated leader battling the “Brexit wreckers”. The Mail on Sunday described MPs who had helped to delay Johnson’s deal as the “House of Fools” and the Sunday Express asked “Why Won’t They Let Us Leave?”.
As yet another turbulent day gets under way, I’ll be keeping you updated with what ministers and MPs are saying on the Sunday politics shows. First up is Sophy Ridge on Sky News, who is scheduled to interview John McDonnell, Nigel Farage, Amber Rudd and Michael Gove among others.
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