Michael Gove warns the Conservatives will 'collapse' if Brexit is not delivered by October deadline

Michael Gove has warned that the Conservative Party will “collapse” if the UK does not leave the European Union by the 31 October deadline.



The Cabinet Office minister said the party was on the “razor’s edge of peril” as he pushed the case for MPs to back Boris Johnson in striking a Brexit deal with Brussels.

In an article for the Sunday Times, Mr Gove also warned colleagues: “The behaviour of the anti-Brexit campaigners is doing real damage to our country.

“A relatively small, rich and powerful set of people in London are prepared to do almost anything they can to undermine the validity of a democratic vote — heedless of the damage this will do to confidence in our political system.”

MPs passed a law to force Mr Johnson to ask for an extension to the Brexit deadline if a deal is not reached by 19 October, to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

He also took aim at the Liberal Democrats new policy to revoke Article 50 if they win a general election, adding: “No wonder the country thinks SW1 has lost the plot.”

Mr Gove said Tory MPs must do “everything we can” to support the Prime Minister in taking Britain out of the bloc.

“If we make the wrong decisions, we will see faith in our democracy damaged and confidence in the Conservative Party drain away. We are on the razor’s edge of peril,” he added.

“If we still find ourselves in the European Union after October 31, having accepted that we can only ever leave when the EU decides, and on terms it dictates, then we will see support for the Conservative Party collapse.

“When we failed to leave, as we had promised, on March 29, faith in our party, and our promises, evaporated…We cannot disappoint the country again. We have seen this movie before. We know how it ends."

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s comments come ahead of the Supreme Court's ruling on whether the Prime Minister broke the law by suspending Parliament for five weeks ahead of the deadline.