Mr Gove’s decision to throw down the gauntlet to Mr Cameron over EU justice measures will raise questions about whether the Prime Minister could remain in office in the event of a Leave vote.

“We’ve stressed throughout that the day after we vote to leave, nothing fundamental changes and we still have the same trading arrangements and we start a process of informal talks and negotiations with our European partners,” Mr Gove says.

“But there are some things that we can change relatively quickly. And one of the things we can do is that we can deal with the European Court of Justice, which has become a rogue court.”

Mr Gove claims that the ECJ “intervened to prevent Abu Hamza’s daughter-in-law being sent out of this country” and says that it is currently considering a judgement on Britain’s surveillance regime in an attempt to assert “legal control over what our intelligence agencies can and cannot do”.