Michael Gove 'turns down Brexit secretary job' and is 'contemplating resigning'

Michael Gove has reportedly declined Theresa May's Brexit Secretary job offer following the dramatic resignation of Dominic Raab. It was reported that the Environment Secretary told the Prime Minister he would accept the job on one condition - permission to scrap the draft Brexit deal entirely.Gove, who was one of the chief architects of the Leave campaign, has reportedly told the PM he wants to head back to Brussels and re-negotiate the whole deal himself. But Mrs May made it clear that was not possible, sources told the BBC. Gove is therefore thought to have rejected the job offer - and is now considering his position and contemplating resignation.

Telegraph reporter Steven Swinford said that Gove was still weighing up whether to quit May's cabinet, following the resignations of two senior ministers earlier on Thursday, including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab. If he resigns, Gove would be the third Cabinet minister to quit today, and the fifth minister in total.

And they add to 14 ministers who had already resigned in the last year, many of them over Brexit. Mrs May has agreed a deal with Brussels that could extend EU customs rules across the whole of the UK - without any set end date, or a guaranteed way of quitting. Today she faces the threat of a leadership contest after influential Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg led a throng of MPs voting no confidence in her.