Tory leadership candidate Michael Gove says he would delay Brexit or leave without a deal

Michael Gove has said he would consider delaying Brexit beyond October 31 if a deal with the EU was on the brink of completion and says a no-deal Brexit should remain on the table.

The Environment Secretary who is one of the frontrunners of the Tory leadership contest made the comments at the Tory leadership hustings organised by the 'One Nation' group of moderate MPs and three days before Theresa May will officially resign as Prime Minister.

Buzzfeed reporter Alex Wickham said on Twitter that Mr Gove had said: "If we are making progress and are on the verge of a deal, and we've had a good EU Council in October and we're 99% of the way there on Halloween are we seriously saying we wouldn't take a bit more time to get the deal done?"

The potential Tory leader reportedly said: "No deal would be a challenge but it has to be on the table. It's not the best option".

At one point during the hustings, the Tory MPs cheered when Mr Gove said the Tories can not have an election without delivering Brexit.

According to Steven Swinford from The Telegraph, Mr Gove said: "Are we going to let an arbitrary deadline be the determinate of what a good deal is?

"If we get to October, let's say we're 95% there, say we default to no deal. That would be a mistake".

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Cabinet ministers Claire Perry and Anne Milton backed the Tory MP to be the next Prime Minister today saying they believed he could unite the Tory Party.

They said: "This moment calls for serious leadership.

"It requires a Prime Minister who can bring our United Kingdom back together and who doesn't just believe in Britain, but can meet the challenges of the 21st-century Britain.

"And in our view, there is only one candidate in this leadership race who can deliver, and that is Michael Gove."

There are 11 MPs in the race to be the new leader of the Tories with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom and Jeremy Hunt the frontrunners.

- This article first appeared on Yahoo