No Trump meeting for Gove - but his kilt catches Melania’s eye
Tory leadership hopeful Michael Gove has revealed he did not get a one-to-one meeting with Donald Trump during the US president’s state visit – but caught the eye of the First Lady while wearing a kilt to Buckingham Palace.
Mr Trump broke diplomatic precedent to intervene in the Conservative leadership contest, holding a 20 minute phone conversation with Boris Johnson and endorsing him as someone who would do a “great job” as prime minister.
In a further snub to Theresa May, who did not have a oneto-one meeting with the president, Mr Trump also met Brexit Party leader Nigel Far age and leading Tor y Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson.
But despite speculation that Mr Gove would have a private audience, there were no talks between the two men.
Giving evidence to the Scottish affairs committee yest er day, the Environment Secretary said that he“had the opportunity to say a few words” to Mr Trump while attending the state banquet for the US president on Monday.
The Edinburgh-born, Aberdeen-raised minister went on: “These occasions require people to wear evening dress and I had the opportunity to wear the kilt and my wife was talking to the First Lady who was very taken with that.
“I think the president may well be placing an order for a dress Gordon tartan. So that’s another example of asuccessful trading arrangement between the UK and the USA that we’ve brokered.”
With concern growing over the terms of a “phenomenal” post-brexit trade deal promised by the US president, Mr Gove told Scottish MPS he was “very confident” that British negotiators would hold their own in the face of tough American demands.
Mr Trump had said that NHS contracts would have to be part of any UK-US trade deal because “everything will be on the table”. But he later rowed back, saying that the NHS was “something that I would not consider part of trade”.
At PMQS, the SNP’S depu - ty Westminster leader Kirsty Blackman claimed the Scottish NHS was“under a growing threat from a Tory-trump Brexit trade deal”, adding that Tory ministers were “plotting to block the Scottish Government having any veto over such a damaging deal”.
That was dismissed by Cabinet Office minister David Lidington, who told MPS: “When it comes to trade negotiations, the NHS is not and will not be up for sale.”