‘Most people in this country are patriotic’
MICHAEL Gove is on a mission to bring new life to your high street.
The Levelling Up Secretary remains determined to deliver on the hopes of people who voted Conservative in 2019 that their communities will be transformed.
He is adamant that the cost of living crisis and the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine do not blunt these ambitions.
“No, no,” he says, sitting beneath a photo of the Queen in his Whitehall office. “Levelling up is even more important now than it was in 2019.”
The 54-year-old speaks with passion of his plans to force landlords to rent out empty properties and his determination that yobs responsible for antisocial behaviour will be seen cleaning up graffiti in fluorescent jackets.
He is convinced that tackling empty buildings will help revive communities.
“A friend said to me, if you’ve got empty properties in a high street it’s like missing teeth in the smile of a friend,” he said. “It is something we absolutely need to address.”
Under the plans, councils will be able to compel landlords to rent out empty properties to the highest bidder.
He said: “If they won’t play ball then we’ll give the local council the power to say, ‘Right. You’ll get rent but that property is going to be occupied by the hairdresser, the beautician, the baker, the new tech start-up or whatever it might be that needs premises and wants to be there helping customers and providing jobs’.”
And he added: “When it comes to home ownership, we are also going to take on the developers who control the housing market and we are going to make sure that we open up home ownership to many more people.”
Mr Gove’s ambitions as a minister are shaped by his background.
He has described how he was “born to a single mother in an Edinburgh hospital ward in 1967, and then taken into care”.
Four months later, he was adopted by Ernest and Christine Gove.
He is a fervent supporter of adoption and believes this saves lives. “The story of
Arthur Labinjo-hughes [murdered by his stepmother in 2020] reminds us that there is still so much to be done,” he said. “If Baby Peter [tortured to death in 2007], if Arthur, had been adopted and were with a loving family then they would be alive today.
“Changing the fate of children who either are at risk or who find themselves in institutional care... the sooner we can get those children with people who love them the better.”
Mr Gove, who represents Surrey Heath, argues that Conservatives in the south of England support efforts to raise the quality of life in more deprived regions.
He said: “My constituents are One Nation
Conservatives. I think most people in this country are altruistic and patriotic, and so they want the whole country to succeed and they want people who may not have had a fair shake of the sauce bottle in the past to succeed as well.”
Aberdeen-raised Mr Gove is one of Parliament’s highest profile champions of the UK as a union of nations.
He said: “Crises like the one in Ukraine force us to recognise the importance of things like defence and security, and working together.
“Crises like the Covid pandemic made us realise we could only get the vaccines necessary and get them distributed if we all
worked together. [Scottish First Minister] Nicola Sturgeon is a formidable politician but I think she must recognise that the case for independence has been made weaker, not stronger, by the events of the past three years.
“And I certainly think that’s what people in Scotland feel as well.”
He is no less enthusiastic about the continuation of the monarchy.
“It is undoubtedly the case that there are people both within Labour and the SNP who dislike our past and our institutions, and who want to undermine them.
“I think there is a profound danger there because our monarchy, our Royal Family, are a focus of national unity and they set an example of service that every other nation in the world admires.”
Arguing that the Queen “embodies the idea of thinking about others first”, he said: “If you hack at that tree then you are attacking the essence of so many of the virtues that are special to the United Kingdom.”
He describes the Conservatives as a party that is “on your side” and draws a sharp distinction with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour, saying: “The problem with Labour – I’ve nothing against any individual – is that they are in hock to special interest groups, they are in hock to the trade unions, they are in hock to hard-left identity politics people, and they are not really on the side of working people.
“They care more about what university lecturers and Guardian journalists think than they do about people who are working hard to earn a living.”
Mr Gove burns with a clear desire to make his mark on the country and speaks with excitement of his hopes to open up the housing market – he is exploring the potential for giving housing association tenants the right to buy their properties – but this former journalist would also like to see a more forgiving society.
He said: “When I was at the Ministry of
Justice, one of the things that I said then, which I think is true, is that nobody should ever be defined by their worst moment and everyone has the capacity to learn and to contribute…
“Particularly in politics, you can become worn down and cynical. You mustn’t allow that to happen.”
He added: “It’s important wherever possible that we try to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and also forgive.
“And I certainly know there’s a lot I’ve got to be forgiven for.”
He is also keenly aware of the difficulties suffered by poorer children during lockdown. “One of the things we saw was that children from poorer backgrounds fell behind. We were closing the gap between rich and poor children in state schools, then it widened over Covid.
“So that means we need to get back to a real drive for achievement.”
However, any suggestion that students from less privileged backgrounds should be excused from taking exams triggers exasperation. “One of the things I worry about is a growing call from some fashionable quarters to get rid of GCSES because these exams cause too much stress for children. I think that is completely wrong.
“I think what we need to do is to make sure that we have rigour in the classroom and high expectations for all children. I’ve heard this song again about getting rid of exams – what it is really all about is having low expectations for children, assuming that they can’t do well.”