I can be trusted, says Gove, after back-stabbing claims
MICHAEL GOVE has insisted he can be trusted as the next prime minister after being accused of “stabbing Boris Johnson in the back and David Cameron in the front”.
The Environment Secretary’s decision to play a leading role in the Leave campaign cost him his friendship with Mr Cameron, the then prime minister.
In the wake of the referendum, he mounted a coup that cost Mr Johnson the Tory leadership.
During an appearance on the BBC’S Political Thinking podcast, Mr Gove was asked by presenter Nick Robinson: “Who’s the real Michael Gove? Is it the man who stabs Boris Johnson in the back and David Cameron in the front? Or is it the very courteous man we see now?” He responded: “I have been pretty consistent. You can rely on being able to judge broadly how I’m going to react on the basis of what you think. You can always discern a lot from looking at someone’s record.”
He said he knew when he decided to back the Leave campaign that it would put a strain on his friendships. “I put a lot on the line,” he said. “I also was doing it at a time when nobody thought Leave would win. But I thought I must stand and be counted. I knew that it would place a strain on friendships. Undoubtedly.”
Mr Gove yesterday announced that he was standing for the leadership, positioning himself as the candidate who could unite the country and deliver Brexit. He said: “I believe that I’m ready to unite the Conservative and Unionist Party, ready to deliver Brexit, and ready to lead this great country.”
In a swipe at his rival Mr Johnson, he insisted he has an “eye for detail”.
Mr Gove had previously ruled himself out of a leadership race, but said he had a change of heart because he wanted to repay his parents, who adopted him as a baby.
He said: “My parents, in choosing to adopt me, were taking a risk. They
‘I thought I must stand and be counted. I knew that it would place a strain on friendships. Undoubtedly’
didn’t know what they were getting into; in a way they didn’t know what this new life coming into their lives was going to mean for them.
“They were – they are – wonderful people and wonderful parents and they gave me everything.
“And one of the things that I’m very conscious of in my life: I want to prove to them that the risk they took, the chance they took ... was the right one.
“There are things I’m doing that show I appreciate the sacrifices that they made and I’m trying to demonstrate to them that it was worth it ... and I can give them reason to believe that they chose the right one.”
Mr Gove said he felt “blessed” to have been given a second chance by his adoptive parents. “At this time I think I’m ready to be prime minister and I think that knowing I have loving parents who have given everything to make sure I’ve had the best possible start in life makes me feel like I can give something back,” he said.
The family grew up in Aberdeen, where his father ran a fish merchant business that later went to the wall, and where his parents still live in a “granite semi-detached house”. His parents also adopted a girl, later discovering that she was deaf.
Mr Gove said: “It would be ridiculous to try and indulge some sort of misery memoir background, but my parents raising a daughter who was living with a disability at a time when not everything was going right in my dad’s business; there were certainly some difficult times, but also I never felt anything other than loved and cared for.”
Asked about Brexit, Mr Gove said that “compromise is not a dirty word” and made clear that he had concerns about no deal.
He said: “I have got to grips with preparing for no deal as a possible out- come. I have worked hard to ensure the department for which I am responsible will be ready come what may.
“But I’ve also said that if we did have a no-deal exit, certainly if we had had one on March 29, there would have been some real problems for particular sectors of our economy. But this is a great country. We would be able to get through it. But it is ultimately better for all of us if we are able to secure a deal.”