MICHAEL Gove has been told to go 'awa and bile his heid' after trying to defend the Government's looming no deal Brexit.

The Cabinet Office Minister blamed the EU for a collapse in Brexit talks, and told MPs that the UK had been ready to negotiate with the bloc "every day".

He claimed the EU was only available on fewer than half of the days suggested for discussion.

Mr Gove was updating the Commons just as EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he told his UK counterpart Lord Frost “the EU remains available to intensify talks in London this week, on all subjects, and based on legal texts”.

Mr Gove said: "I have to report to the House that this intensification was not forthcoming.

“The EU was only willing to conduct negotiations on fewer than half the days available and would not engage on all of the outstanding issues.

“Moreover, the EU refused to discuss legal texts in any area as it has done since the summer. Indeed it’s almost incredible to our negotiators we have reached this point in the negotiations without any common legal texts of any kind.”

He also said further trade talks would be “meaningless” unless the EU changes its position, adding: “The conclusions of that council reaffirmed the EU’s original negotiating mandate, they dropped a reference to intensive talks that has been in the draft and they declared that all, all future moves in this negotiation had to be made by the UK.

“Although some attempts were made to soften this message by some EU leaders, the European Council reaffirmed those conclusions as authoritative on Friday.

“This unfortunate sequence of events has in effect ended the trade negotiations because it leaves no basis on which we can actually find agreement.

“There’s no point in negotiations proceeding as long as the EU sticks with this position. Such talks would be meaningless and would take us no nearer to finding a workable solution.”

Pete Wishart, SNP MP, called Tory Brexiteers "clown show-wearing goalpost-shifters" in his exchange with Mr Gove, and suggested the MP should go and "bile his heid".

Mr Wishart added that the EU must have the "patience of saints" to be able to deal with the UK negotiators and the UK Government.

He said: "So here we go, the coveted 'No deal' is now in touching distance. The dance of the No Deal seven veils is now down to its Brexit underwear.

"The 'easiest deal in the history' will now mean the UK leaving on Mongolian terms, and the absolute rubbish we had to listen to, about oven-ready deals and holding all the cards is now just the stuff of grotesque bad jokes."

Sarcastically, the MP said:" Whose fault is it? Not his, or his cabal of Tory anti-EU obsessives, its all the fault of these Europeans. How dare they ask the Tories to stand by what we agreed, how dare they ask for a level playing field, and to maintain the integrity of their single market."

The MP said Mr Gove "somehow expects Scotland to go along with this disaster" and added: " There's a saying that he will know of as a proud Scot, which will be Scotland's response to this: he can go and bile his heid."

Labour's shadow cabinet secretary Rachel Reeves told Mr Gove to "stop posturing and start negotiating" and chastised the UK Government for telling businesses to prepare for the end of the transition period.

The MP said: "They can call it no deal, they can call it an Australia deal, they can call it a Narnia deal as far as I'm concerned, but let's be honest about what that means and about how damaging it is for this country."

She continued: "It s a bit rich for the Government to lecture businesses on getting ready when the Government can't even tell them what they are getting ready for.

"At what point did the British government give up on British industry? And when will the minister be meeting with those businesses, because it's all well and good to say prepare but if he can't even be bothered to get around a table with them, I ask again, what are they supposed to be preparing for and what support is the government giving them?"

Former Prime Minister Theresa May appeared to mouth “utter rubbish” as Michael Gove claimed the UK can “co-operate more effectively” in many areas over border security outside the EU than “we ever could inside”.

The Conservative MP told the Commons: “The Government appears resigned to the prospect of no deal, yet one area which they should not be resigned to the prospect of no deal is in security.”

Ms May said neither Mr Gove nor Prime Minister Boris Johnson had mentioned security in recent statements, adding: “Will (Mr Gove) confirm that if the UK walks away with no-deal then our police and law enforcement agencies will no longer have the necessary access to databases, such as PNR (Passenger Name Record), in order to continue to identify and catch criminals and potential terrorists in order to keep us safe?”

Mr Gove said “significant progress” has been made over security co-operation, adding: “But it is the case that the EU are insisting that before we have access to systems, like the Schengen Information System, we have to accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice – we cannot accept that.