MICHAEL Gove has thrown Theresa May a political lifeline after he announced, following hours of uncertainty, that he would be staying in the UK Government as the Environment Secretary.

His move came as Tory sources said Conservative whips had been ordered back to London to mount a massive weekend charm offensive to persuade colleagues not to back a move by Brexiteers to stage a no-confidence vote in the Prime Minister at Westminster on Monday.

The Herald understands that Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 backbench committee, had not by this morning received the necessary 48 signatures to open up a contest. Some 20 Tory MPs have gone public in saying they have handed in a letter, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the pro-Brexit European Research Group.

One senior Brexiteer source claimed the number of signatures was "close" to 48, noting: "People are consulting with their associations over the weekend."

But David Lidington, Mrs May’s de facto deputy, speaking in Edinburgh after meeting business leaders, asked what he would say to those rebels submitting letters of no-confidence, declared: "Withdraw them, because I don't think you're doing the country any good by attacking the Prime Minister in this way.”

He went on: "I've seen no plausible alternative plan from any of those criticising her or wanting to challenge her position. I believe if it does comes to a challenge the Prime Minister will win handsomely and she will deserve to do so."

What the Tory rebels have to calculate is that if Mrs May survives a no-confidence vote, she cannot be challenged for at least a year; they may be banking on getting sufficient numbers to do such damage that she resigns anyway.

After the drama of Thursday when Dominic Raab became the second Brexit Secretary to quit along with his Brexiteer colleague Esther McVey, who held the Work and Pensions portfolio, all eyes were on Mr Gove.

Expectation was growing at Westminster that the Scot would be the latest to resign after suggestions that he had turned down the job of Brexit Secretary because his precondition – that the draft deal with Brussels would have to be renegotiated – was rebuffed by the PM.

Following a morning of uncertainty with the Secretary of State refusing to confirm one way or the other if he would resign, a statement was issued.

Mr Gove said: “I’ve had a very good morning in a series of meetings with my colleagues here at Defra, just making sure that we have the right policies on the environment, on farming and on fisheries for the future.

“And I’m also looking forward to continuing to work with all my Government colleagues and all my colleagues in Parliament in order to make sure that we get the best future for Britain.”

He added: “It’s absolutely vital that we focus on getting the right deal in the future and making sure that in the areas that matter so much to the British people, we can get a good outcome.”

It is believed that the Surrey MP felt “tortured” over whether or not to quit. One factor would have been his personal ambition. He still harbours a desire to be prime minister but, after playing a key role that led to the downfall of his once close friend David Cameron and a key role in preventing Boris Johnson from becoming PM, he is mindful that his reputation for loyalty could be shredded completely if he plunged the knife into Mrs May.

Fellow Brexiteer Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, also rallied round the beleaguered PM, saying he had "full confidence” in her, insisting: “She is taking us forward with confidence and - I have to say - with resilience, and I very much agree with Michael Gove that what we need now is stability."

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the PM was "very pleased" that Mr Gove would stay on and "continue doing the important work he is doing".

Mrs May, who has begun the process of selling her draft deal on the media, noted how she had had "a very good conversation" with Mr Gove on Thursday but, during an LBC radio interview, declined to say what they had discussed other than the future of the fishing industry after Brexit.

She insisted the Environment Secretary had been doing "a great job", adding: "I haven't appointed a new Brexit Secretary yet, but obviously I will be doing that over the course of the next day or so."

It is expected that one or two Cabinet replacements could be announced later today.

Meanwhile, The Herald believes that the call by Nicola Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones for an emergency plenary meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee next week, chaired by the PM, will be rebuffed.

Instead, it is thought that a regular meeting of the JMC[EN], which considers the Brexit process, is being pencilled in for Monday with Michael Russell, the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Relations Secretary, invited to attend in Whitehall.

A JMC plenary session could take place after the special European Council on the draft agreement on Sunday November 25.

Today, Mr Lidington was due to travel from Edinburgh to Cardiff to meet Mark Drakeford, the Welsh Government’s Finance Secretary. Whitehall sources said that his offer to meet a representative of the SNP administration in the Scottish capital had been rebuffed.

In her LBC interview, the PM denied she had had a "testy exchange" over Brexit with Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority administration in the Commons.

But she left no doubt she was aware she could not guarantee DUP support when the draft Brexit deal came to the Commons, saying: "Every individual MP will decide how they will vote, whether they are DUP, Conservative, Labour.

"My job is to persuade first and foremost my Conservative benches, those who are working with us - the DUP are working with us, obviously, confidence and supply - but I want to be able to say to every MP I believe this is the best deal for the UK."

Mrs May was forced to defend her deal with Brussels to a series of callers, including Conservative-supporting councillor Daniel Turner from Louth who told her to "stand down and allow someone from the Brexit camp to take the lead".

Asked whether she saw herself as a "modern-day Chamberlain", she replied: "No I don't...What we are doing is negotiating a deal that means we can take back control of our borders, free movement will end once and for all. We take back control of our money, we won't be sending vast sums of money to the EU every year.

"We take back control of our laws, we won't be under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. We come out of some of the things that people have been really concerned about for years - Common Agricultural Policy, Common Fisheries Policy. We're out of the customs union, out of the single market.

“That's what people voted for and that's what I'm delivering," she added.

David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, denounced the draft deal agreed by Cabinet on Wednesday as a "dreadful proposal" and suggested it was still possible to reopen negotiations with Brussels.

"The European Union has spun this out deliberately to try to use time against us," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "But European negotiations are never over until they are concluded."

His comment earned a stinging rebuke from Sir Simon Fraser, the former Foreign Office Permanent Secretary, who said: "David Davis was a terrible Brexit Secretary. He could hardly be bothered to go to Brussels and rapidly lost respect there.

"Preposterous for him now to suggest that EU deliberately delayed negotiations. They spent months waiting for him to engage."

Elsewhere, Labour’s John McDonnell claimed Labour could secure a Commons majority for a "compromise" Brexit deal.

The Shadow Chancellor argued that a "unity platform" was emerging at Westminster to avoid the "catastrophic" impact of a no-deal break with the EU.

“We can secure a majority," he declared. "People have looked over the edge of a no-deal Brexit and realised it could be catastrophic for our economy.

"Our European partners also have looked over the edge of a no-deal Brexit and seen what an impact it could have on their economies,” he added.