Michael Gove has described the Brexit deadline of October 31 as “arbitrary” and confirmed that he is prepared to delay the UK’s exit from the EU to gain a good deal.
The environment secretary, who is casting himself as a “liberal” bridge-builder in the race to succeed Theresa May, has previously spoken out against a no-deal exit. On Wednesday, he said that the UK must not be bound by a “fixed” date and that he would be prepared to extend Article 50 for a period of “weeks”.
The pledge puts him at odds with many of the other contenders in the leadership race, notably the frontrunner Boris Johnson, who have promised no further postponements to leaving the EU.
Speaking at an event for the Spectator magazine, Mr Gove said: “Are we going to let an arbitrary deadline be the determinate of what a good deal is? If we get to October, let’s say we’re 95 per cent there, [and then] we default to no-deal. That would be a mistake.
“If we are so close to the wire with what I believe is a better deal, then it would be right to take an extra few days or weeks to ensure that we land it.”
But he also added that if it came to a decision between no-deal and no Brexit, “I will choose no-deal”.
Mrs May, the prime minister, will step down as Tory leader on Friday after failing three times to get her Brexit deal through the House of Commons. The party announced on Tuesday that it intended to select her replacement by the week beginning July 22.
Mr Gove said that he would seek to negotiate changes to the so-called Irish backstop agreed by Mrs May, which is fiercely opposed by Eurosceptic Conservative MPs and the Democratic Unionist party.
He earlier addressed the second leadership hustings, speaking to the One Nation group of centrist Tory MPs. He said he would use the party’s backbenches as his “policy unit” and spoke of improving life chances through education, referencing his life story of growing up as an adopted child.
A total of 65 MPs attended the hustings to hear from Jeremy Hunt, foreign secretary; Matt Hancock, health secretary; and Dominic Raab, former Brexit secretary.
Mr Hancock told MPs that they had to choose a leader who could keep Jeremy Corbyn out of office: “The Conservative party has to get this right. If we don’t, we could end up with the first anti-Semitic leader of a western nation since the second world war.”
Meanwhile, Mr Raab said “until we have kept our promise on Brexit” the party had no chance of delivering a domestic agenda.
“We can’t go on to talk about the optimistic vision we have for a fairer economy, for a fairer society, that will bring us together. I am the best placed candidate to deliver Brexit which will free us up to do that,” he said.
Mr Hunt made a pitch to MPs based on a message of unity. “Our divisions are more complicated than rich and poor. Our mission has to be unity. We need to bring together the country not just get through Brexit, bringing together the 52 and 48 per cent,” he said. “As well as being compassionate Conservatives, we need to be radical Conservatives.”
