The Incorrigible Michael Gove

Gloria Gaynor's greatest hit?

Listening to the Today Programme this morning, I was surprised that even the assertive presenter Amol Rajan was flummoxed by the apparently reasonable and emollient phrases of Michael Gove. It was a live example of Gove’s innate ability to convince his colleagues and wider audiences, even the sceptics. He is the political version of the number 42.

 

It is becoming a common trope of journalists and commentators to rank the past five prime ministers, all of whom would be in the relegation zone of post-war prime ministers. They were seduced by Gove’s calm reasoning and they gave him various cabinet portfolios to play with. The exception was Liz Truss, Gove had endorsed Rishi Sunak, and Truss didn’t take prisoners.  Since May 2010, Gove has spent more years in the cabinet than any other MP. He is the master of survival. He had probably figured that Truss would not last long and sure enough, after 49 days of trashing the country, she was terminated. He would probably like to think the damage done in the days he wasn’t in office would prove that his sage guidance to the cabinet during his 14 years would be his enduring legacy, the halcyon days of the Cam-Sun governments.

 

Gove was resurrected and appointed Sunak’s Minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. He is the true Svengali of the Tory party, able to sweet talk other members of the party into taking what he presents as a modern reformist agenda and for others to take the fall when the policies fail to deliver. He managed to inveigle his way into key cabinet positions with four prime ministers and in the process managed to damage public services in a way that will take many decades to repair. Of course, he would never accept this. He averts any responsibility by referring to the failure of others or events dear boy and just occasionally gives a grovelling apology to prove that he is human and can make mistakes. 

 

His duplicity is legendary, it is in his DNA. Witness his betrayal of Boris Johnson on two occasions, although that could be construed as good judgment, but on both occasions it was after the damage had been done. Most recently during the Covid Inquiry, he criticised his government by saying that he thought the lockdown was far too late and that “we are fucking up as a government...and the whole situation is worse than you think”. At the same time, he was responsible as Minister for the cabinet office for setting up the PPE fast track for Ministers' friends and we know what damage that did. 

Whilst Education Minister in 2010, he abandoned the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ initiative which had been set up by the previous Labour Government and over 600 state schools lost out on capital building projects that were ready to roll so he could create Academies.  He scrapped the social housing regulator leaving tenants no longer protected. He played the key role in arguing for the UK to leave the European Union, ditching his friend David Cameron in the process and providing the intellectual heft for Boris Johnson to jump aboard the Brexit Express. So began the four years of Parliamentary chaos over Brexit. This also led to three prime ministers resigning whilst getting Brexit wrong. 

But Michael Gove had this enormous ability to survive when all others drop by the wayside. He has a tendency to appeal to the Conservative Party as a reformer and someone in touch with the zeitgeist. He is one nation, two nation, right-wing, progressive, zero carbon, or whatever other faction makes sense at any given time. His claim to be a reformer contradicts his underlying philosophical beliefs that people must be free to make money but that there must be redemption for lesser mortals. They have always been key values of the Conservative Party. 

Even watching him run, with the gait of an errant pony, could not better illustrate his tendency to wander. When we come to revisit the wasted years when the UK lost respect and influence, the five Prime Ministers will be in the dock. Johnson or Truss will be nominated as the worst Prime Minister and Gove will be a latter day Rasputin.