Will Chequers plan be abandoned after Brexit?
Michael Gove says May’s deal is ‘the right one for now’ but could be altered by a future PM

Michael Gove is urging MPs to support Theresa May’s controversial Chequers plan, claiming the deal could be undone once the UK has left the European Union.
The environment secretary, one of the leading members of the Vote Leave campaign, signed up to the prime minister’s Brexit plan at her Chequers retreat in July. Fellow Cabinet Brexiteers David Davis and Boris Johnson quit days later in protest at the proposal, which would see Britain accept EU rules on goods while setting its own standards for services.
However, Gove told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show that the plan is the “right one for now” - before caveating that “a future prime minister could always choose to alter the relationship between Britain and the European Union”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
He called on other MPs to see through Britain’s exit rather than risk an impasse in Parliament, or a general election, saying that the UK has to “take advantage of the opportunities of being outside the European Union”.
Admitting that he was unhappy with parts of the proposal, Gove added: “I have to qualify one or two of my views. I have to acknowledge the parliamentary arithmetic.”
Politico’s Jack Blanchard believes that Gove - one of the “more pragmatic Brexiteers” - aims to “get Britain out of the EU by whatever means necessary and then attempt to loosen ties with Brussels at some future time... presumably when the Tories actually have a decent majority in Parliament”.
Housing Minister Kit Malthouse also appears to endorse that tactic. Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour last night, Malthouse said: “I think it [the Chequers plan] gets us over the line. And as far as I’m concerned as a Leave voter, it’s sufficient for the moment, given the maths in Parliament.”
Gove’s intervention came hours before former Cabinet colleague Boris Johnson launched yet another broadside against the proposals, suggesting that ministers had been misled about the implications of the Irish backstop agreement.
The British government agreed last December that if the EU was not satisfied with the arrangements for the border, Northern Ireland would become part of the EU customs union and large parts of its single market. In his now weekly excoriation of May’s plan in his column for The Daily Telegraph, Johnson writes that ministers had been told it was “only hypothetical… we were taken in”.
By agreeing to the Irish backstop, he continues, May has paved the way for a “spectacular political car crash”. Johnson calls the Chequers plan a “constitutional abomination” and says that any deal must allow “gradual regulatory divergence between the UK and Ireland”.
In a bid to counter such concerns, Downing Street is “seeking a political declaration on the future EU-UK relationship which states the Irish backstop plan will never be needed, and that both sides will negotiate a free trade area between the EU and the whole UK”, says the Financial Times.
However, the declaration “would not be legally binding”, and officials “are searching for a legally operative backstop in case no free trade area is agreed”, adds the newspaper.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Democrats: The 2028 race has begun
Feature Democratic primaries have already kicked off in South Carolina
-
The Pentagon's missing missiles
Feature The U.S. military is low on weapons. Can it restock before a major conflict breaks out?
-
Rescissions: Trump's push to control federal spending
Feature The GOP passed a bill to reduce funding for PBS, NPR and other public media stations
-
What difference will the 'historic' UK-Germany treaty make?
Today's Big Question Europe's two biggest economies sign first treaty since WWII, underscoring 'triangle alliance' with France amid growing Russian threat and US distance
-
Viktor Orban: is time up for Europe's longest-serving premier?
Today's Big Question Hungarian PM's power is under threat 'but not in the way – or from the people – one might expect'
-
Entente cordiale: will state visit help UK-French relations get over Brexit?
Today's Big Question The King, a keen Francophile who has a warm relationship with Emmanuel Macron, will play a key role in state visit
-
Is the G7 still relevant?
Talking Point Donald Trump's early departure cast a shadow over this week's meeting of the world's major democracies
-
Angela Rayner: Labour's next leader?
Today's Big Question A leaked memo has sparked speculation that the deputy PM is positioning herself as the left-of-centre alternative to Keir Starmer
-
Brexit 'reset' deal: how will it work?
In Depth Keir Stamer says the deal is a 'win-win', but he faces claims that he has 'surrendered' to Brussels on fishing rights
-
Are we entering the post-Brexit era?
Today's Big Question Keir Starmer's 'big bet' with his EU reset deal is that 'nobody really cares' about Brexit any more
-
Is Starmer's plan to send migrants overseas Rwanda 2.0?
Today's Big Question Failed asylum seekers could be removed to Balkan nations under new government plans