The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
‘I should not have run for leadership’
Politics: Tory Gove admits making ‘mistakes’
Michael Gove has acknowledged he was probably wrong to stand in last year’s Conservative leadership contest.
The former justice secretary has previously admitted to “mistakes” in the way he dramatically ditched Boris Johnson to run himself, but in a new interview he said: “With the benefit of hindsight, I should have not been so quick to say that I was going to support Boris in the first place and probably should never have run myself.”
Mr Gove said he stood because he believed the new leader must be a Brexit supporter, but did not think that Mr Johnson “was the right person to be prime minister at that time”.
He said he now accepts victory for Theresa May was “the right result”, adding that the PM had “handled events over the course of the last eight months better, I think, than I would have done”.
He said he had no plans to stand down as an MP: “At the moment I am enjoying it so I am happy to carry on through thick and thin for a few years yet.”
He dismissed rumours that he might be a future editor of The Times, insisting: “I wouldn’t really want to do that, no.”
Mr Gove declined to discuss the reported presence of News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch at an interview he conducted for The Times with US President Donald Trump shortly before his inauguration.
Asked if Mr Murdoch was in the room, Mr Gove said: “I think it’s probably better for me not to go into how the interview arose or how it came about, but I think it’s entirely fair for people to make a set of conclusions or assumptions about that.
“I won’t comment on them if you don’t mind. I haven’t said anything about it at this stage.”
He predicted that Mr Trump will see out his first term as president then lose the White House in 2020.
Mr Trump is “clearly narcissistic or egotistical enough to want to be seen as a success”, said Mr Gove, adding: “I suspect that his ego will mean he will both want to see what he can do in office and he will believe that he can prevail against whoever the Democrat opponent is.”
Mr Gove revealed that, more than seven months after the referendum which pitted him against his former ally, he has still not spoken to David Cameron.
“I’ve spoken to Boris,” he said. “David – the opportunity hasn’t arisen.”
He added: “My view is that I entirely respect his right to have left Parliament, devote himself to other causes outside Parliament, and make judgments himself about how he spends his time and who he talks to, and I don’t make any criticism.”
“I think it’s probably better for me not to go into how the interview arose”