Brexecuted! Boris fans bite back

Gove reneges on deal as he puts himself up for top job

JUSTICE Secretary Michael Gove pitched yesterday to be the prime minister to take Britain out of the EU, a day after he destroyed the chances of another frontrunner in what some colleagues called an act of treachery.

Gove’s decision on Thursday to throw his hat in the ring to replace David Cameron, who is standing down after Britons voted to leave the EU last week, upturned British politics after he had previously said he would back Boris Johnson.

His comment that Johnson, with whom he had campaigned across the country to secure the vote for Brexit, was not fit to lead effectively ended the popular former London mayor’s hopes.

Five candidates are hoping to replace Cameron, with interior minister Theresa May the favourite with bookmakers. Ruling Conservative Party MPs will whittle the field down to two, before a final decision is made by party members. The new leader will be in place in early September.

The decision to quit the EU has cost Britain its top credit rating, pushed the pound to its lowest level against the dollar since the mid-1980s and wiped a record $3 trillion off global shares.

EU leaders are scrambling to prevent any further unravelling of a bloc that helped guarantee peace in post-war Europe.

“I never thought I’d be in this position. I did not want it, indeed I did almost everything not to be a candidate for the leadership of this party,” Gove said.

Colleagues in the Conservative Party who backed Johnson have poured opprobrium on Gove. Johnson himself hinted he saw it as treason, hiding a quote from Shakespeare’s play about political murder in his speech announcing his decision not to stand on Thursday.

Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid the Sun said Johnson had been “Brexecuted”.

“There is a very deep pit reserved in hell for such as he. #Gove”, Conservative MP Jake Berry wrote on Twitter in a message he later deleted.

Trying to reach out to his party, Gove said he was driven by conviction and not ambition, and Johnson was not the right man for the top job.

As one of the leading leave campaigners, Gove said the next prime minister should be someone who supported exiting the EU, a swipe at May who, like Cameron, was in the remain camp.

May now says she will implement the voters’ will and negotiate to leave.

The other three are the pensions secretary, a right-wing former defence secretary and a junior minister in the energy department.

Alongside the battle to lead the Conservative Party, the main opposition Labour Party has turned on itself, with most of its MPs having voted to withdraw support for leader Jeremy Corbyn, a left-winger. They accuse him of leading a half-hearted campaign to stay in the EU. – Reuters