Gove admits ‘moral cowardice’ over Brexit referendum

MICHAEL GOVE has admitted he showed “moral cowardice” by leading Lord Cameron to believe he would take a back seat role during the Brexit referendum.

The Cabinet minister said he didn’t believe he deceived his former friend, but acknowledged he could have been “more upfront earlier” about the possibility of him playing a more prominent part in the Leave campaign.

The pair famously fell out in the run up to the 2016 vote when Mr Gove, then the justice secretary, abandoned his ally to join the Brexit camp in a move that was said to leave Lord Cameron “shocked and hurt”.

George Osborne, the former chancellor, said in an interview on his Political Currency podcast that Mr Gove had assured Lord Cameron that he would not play a “prominent role” in the campaign, only to end up chairing it. He asked: “Did you deceive David? He certainly felt at the time betrayed.”

Mr Gove said he did not believe he did, but added: “As I mentioned, I do think that I could have been clearer earlier. And I think that was an example of, on the one hand, cowardice on my part, moral cowardice, on the other hand, a recognition that perhaps there’s this feeling in politics, perhaps something will turn up, perhaps this moment won’t come when we have to make that decision.”

The minister, now Levelling Up Secretary, said he had ended up “going further than you’d imagine or anticipated at the beginning of the campaign”.

He recalled: “I didn’t want to take part in the debates, the television shows that I ultimately took part in or play as prominent a role.”

Pressed by Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor, on whether he had been egged on by his ex-adviser, Dominic Cummings, he said “Yes”, adding that “one of the arguments was, ‘If you don’t do this, they’ll have Farage on’”.

Mr Gove opted to back the Leave campaign in February 2016, just as Lord Cameron revealed the fruits of his renegotiations in Brussels. The move tore a rift between the friends and political allies. The Cameron and Gove families had been on holiday together at the time, and Mr Gove’s ex-wife, Sarah Vine, is godmother to the Camerons’ youngest daughter, Florence.

Mr Gove also reflected on his decision to turn on Boris Johnson at the eleventh hour and stand for the Tory leadership himself after Lord Cameron resigned in the wake of the Brexit vote.

“I wanted to believe, and did believe, that Boris had grown during the referendum campaign and was ready,” he said. “And then I lost confidence in the judgment that he had changed sufficiently and was sufficiently ready.”