MPs could undo the Chequers deal once the UK has left the EU, Michael Gove has claimed, saying the prime minister’s proposal was the “right one for now”.

The environment secretary, a prominent Brexiter, has regularly made a similar case in private to MPs, urging them to back May to see through Britain’s exit rather than risk an impasse in parliament or a general election.

If the EU changed its rules to disadvantage Britain, he said, it would be up to parliament to “chart this nation’s destiny” and potentially change the relationship, he said.

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His intervention came hours before his former cabinet colleague Boris Johnson launched yet another broadside against the plan, suggesting that ministers had been “taken in” about the implications of the Irish backstop agreement in December.

In that agreement, the UK government agreed if the EU was not satisfied with the arrangements for the border, Northern Ireland would be part of the EU customs union and large parts of its single market. Johnson said ministers had been told it was “only hypothetical … We were taken in.”

Writing in the Telegraph, Johnson said the consequences would “amount to a change in Northern Ireland’s constitutional status without its people’s consent … it is a monstrosity.”

To avoid a border down the Irish Sea, the UK has argued it must be a UK-wide backstop. “That is also the essence of the Chequers proposals,” he wrote. “They mean that the UK will become a rules-taker not just in goods and agri-foods, but almost certainly in the environment and social policy and many other legislative areas.

“The whole thing is a constitutional abomination, and if Chequers were adopted it would mean that for the first time since 1066 our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule.”

Gove is among the more sceptical cabinet Brexiters who have been persuaded to back the prime minister’s plans for a common rulebook on goods as part of the proposals brokered at the prime minister’s country retreat in Chequers this summer, which led to Johnson’s resignation.

Others who have stayed in the cabinet but remain in doubt about the plans include the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, and the Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom.

On Sunday, Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that “a future prime minister could always choose to alter the relationship between Britain and the European Union.

“But the Chequers approach is the right one for now because we have got to make sure that we respect that vote and take advantage of the opportunities of being outside the European Union.”

He is understood to have made a similar case to MPs repeatedly over the summer, admitting he had some discomfort with some terms of the deal but that it delivered on most key tenets of the referendum, including leaving the European court of justice and ending free movement.

His public argument comes amid a charm offensive in which Brexit-backing MPs have been hosted in Downing Street by senior staff who have made the case for the prime minister’s deal and warned them they risk a second referendum or general election if they vote down any agreement.

Gove said the UK had shown flexibility and it was now time for the EU to show some willingness to compromise.

“I’ve compromised,” he said. “I’ve been quite clear that some of the things that I argued for in the referendum passionately, as a result of Chequers, I have to qualify one or two of my views. I have to acknowledge the parliamentary arithmetic. I believe the critical thing is making sure we leave in good order with a deal which safeguards the referendum mandate.”

The Liberal Democrats’ Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said the comments were “hypocrisy and disloyalty” from the cabinet minister. “He must be running out of daggers. First Cameron, then Boris, now May. If he gets his way, it’ll be the country next.”

Conservative MPs who oppose the Chequers deal, including the former Brexit secretary, David Davis, are to ramp up public opposition in the coming weeks with a series of rallies.

Davis will share a platform with the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the hard Brexit European Research Group of MPs. Others who will speak at the rallies, organised by the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave Means Leave, include the former Brexit minister David Jones, the former environment secretary Owen Paterson and the Labour MP Kate Hoey.

The rallies will begin next Saturday in Bolton with Farage, Davis and Hoey, an event that organisers say has almost sold out. Other rallies will take place in Birmingham during the Conservative party conference and continue on to Torquay, Bournemouth, Gateshead and Harrogate.



Richard Tice, the vice-chair of Leave Means Leave, said: “Leave Means Leave will be travelling across the country to make the case that the prime minister should chuck the Chequers plan and save £39bn. The cross-party nature of the campaign proves how important this battle is. Party politics has been put to one side to secure what is best for Britain’s future.”