Britain's Gove says Brexit plan is a realistic compromise

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s new Brexit plan honours the negotiating red lines of Prime Minister Theresa May and meets the demands of business even if it does not match all the hopes of some anti-EU campaigners, Environment Minister Michael Gove said.

Britain's Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove talks about the planned cabinet meeting, at the Prime Minister's official country residence Chequers later this week, on the BBC radio Today programme in London, Britain, July 4, 2018. Jeff Overs/BBC/Handout via REUTERS

“I am a realist,” Gove, one of the leading supporters of a more decisive break by Britain from the European Union, told the BBC on Sunday.

“A lot of the things about politics is that you mustn’t, you shouldn’t, make the perfect the enemy of the good. And one of the things about this compromise is that it unites the cabinet.”

May won backing from her ministers on Friday for a “business friendly” Brexit plan that would push for a free trade area for goods and continued close ties with the EU.

There were signs of a backlash from some of her Conservative Party lawmakers on Sunday including leading anti-EU campaigner Jacob Rees-Mogg who said the proposal could be worse than Britain leaving the bloc with no deal at all.

Reporting by Paul Sandle and William Schomberg

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