Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GOVE TAKES £400K HIT ON HOUSE SALE
Quick deal so Tory and ex ‘can move on’
MICHAEL Gove and his ex-wife are selling their family home for £400,000 less than its estimated market value.
The Tory housing minister and the newspaper columnist Sarah Vine listed the fivebed pile in West London for £2,095,000. It has been sold subject to contract.
They bought it for £2million in April 2017 and, if they get the asking price, will make less than a 5% profit.
Some housing websites suggest it is now worth as much as £2.5million.
Estate agents describe the property – with a library, railed balcony and walled garden – as “oozing style”.
A source last night told the Sunday Mirror: “It’s surprising they haven’t held out for a better offer, but I think they both just wanted it over and done with.
“It’s understandable that they didn’t want the sale to drag on, particularly for the sake of their children.
“It allows them both to move on.” The sale comes four months after a judge granted a divorce in “less than 10 seconds” based on the Cabinet minister’s “unreasonable behaviour” and that “the marriage had irretrievably broken down”.
They split last July after a 20-year marriage and had lived at the property with their two children and pet dog Snowy.
BALLROOM
Mr Gove, whose full official title is Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has since been living in the sumptuous “grace-and-favour” Carlton Gardens residence in Westminster, usually reserved for the Foreign Secretary.
He is said to have moved into the £25million property at the end of 2021 at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s insistence.
The PM, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Chief Whip are all examples of political positions which come complete with a graceand-favour residence.
But Mr Gove, 54, is believed to be the first with the relatively junior post of Housing Minister to be given the privilege.
Carlton Gardens has a ballroom, two dining rooms and a three-bedroom apartment – all a far cry from the Tory politician’s childhood home in Aberdeen.
Mr Gove spent the first four months of his life in care after being given up shortly after birth by his biological mother. He was adopted by Ernest and Christine Gove, who brought him up in a three-bed semi.
Ms Vine, 55, was born in Swansea but was brought up in Italy, where her dad worked as an accountant.
She moved back to England aged 16 and started out as a journalist at the Daily Mirror. She is godmother to one of former PM David Cameron’s daughters.
In an interview about her marriage split she denied Mr Gove had strayed, saying: “Despite all the rumours, his only mistress was politics. That’s what he is in love with.”