The leading Cabinet Brexiteer made his comments following the announcement that Theresa May has struck a deal with the EU over the first stage of the Brexit negotiations.

One Tory critic of Mr Gove said: “Michael has made one ill-judged attempt to be leader. This is no time to promote himself again.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable also criticised Mr Gove and accused him of a “poisonous” attempt to wreck Mrs May’s "modest triumph".

He wrote in the Mail on Sunday: “The male equivalent of a stiletto heel was deployed by this smiling assassin to hurt, diminish and seemingly seek to destroy her politically.’

The deal Mrs May reached with Brussels received a mixed response when announced, with some people arguing it failed to deliver on the promises of last year’s referendum.

However, the Environment Secretary said that the deal can be rejected by the public if they vote for change at the next general election.

He said: “The British people will be in control. If the British people dislike the agreement that we have negotiated with the EU, the agreement will allow a future government to diverge.

He continued: "By the time of the next election, EU law and any new treaty with the EU will cease to have primacy or direct effect in UK law."

The deal announced on Friday included a number of compromises such as the UK agreeing to pay a divorce bill of approximately £40billion, the European Court of Justice continues to have jurisdiction over the UK for another until 2027, and the agreement of “full alignment” with the EU.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Gove was positive about the deal and praised the Prime Minister.

He wrote: “Thanks to the Prime Minister's tenacity and skill, we've achieved a breakthrough on these issues.”

However, not everyone was happy with the deal.

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage called the agreement a “humiliation” and hit out at those who called it a “victory”.

He said: “It’s a victory if you think paying away a gargantuan sum of money is a good thing, if you think giving foreign courts jurisdiction over this country for nearly up to a decade to come is a good thing.”

Outlining UKIP’s rejection of the deal on the Daily Politics leader Henry Bolton said: "What this is is a total surrender to the European Commission and in fact, having worked in Brussels for three years, I recognise the style of the document that has been produced.

"I would say 80 to 90 per cent of it was actually drafted in Brussels. Of course, we don’t know that but that’s my guess."