Brexit’s no joke, top Tory rages at Gove
MICHAEL GOVE was given a dressing down by former Tory chairman Lord Feldman in a blazing Brexit row at a secret Conservative dinner.
Lord Feldman lashed out after pro-Brexit Minister Mr Gove was quizzed on the stalemate in the Brussels talks and ‘impersonated’ the German EU bureaucrat known as ‘the monster’.
The peer accused Mr Gove of treating Brexit as a ‘joke’ and said he was responsible for leading Britain to ‘disaster’. He also said Mr Gove had ‘no idea how to get out of the mess.’
Witnesses at the private Commons dinner attended by senior Tories say there were ‘extraordinary scenes’ when Lord Feldman, a close friend and political ally of ex-Prime Minister David Cameron, laid into Gove. ‘There was shouting, banging of tables and finger wagging,’ said one.
‘I have never seen Andrew so cross.’
The row started when Mr Gove, addressing the dinner hosted by the party’s ‘Green Chip’ dining club for Tories interested in the environment, opened his Brexit remarks with a pun referring to EU Secretary General Martin Selmayr. Mr Gove declared: ‘Hello, ladies and gentleman, I am Martin Selmayr and I want you to sellme-your ideas on how to solve Brexit.’ He delivered the words ‘sell-me-your’ to make them sound like Sel-ma-yr. Mr Selmayr is former chief of staff to EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who affectionately called him his ‘monster’. Pro-Brexit Tories claim Mr Selmayr is behind attempts to ‘punish’ Britain for leaving his cherished EU. Mr Gove responded to Brexit suggestions from guests by explaining how they could be demolished by Mr Selmayr.
Lord Feldman is said to have told him: ‘It is time you treated this seriously and not as a joke. We are heading for a complete bloody disaster. You got us into this mess and you clearly have no Plan B and not the remotest idea how to get us out of it.’
One MP said: ‘Michael behaved more like a stand-up comic than a Cabinet Minister.’
Others supported Mr Gove. One said: ‘Feldman was pompous. Michael put over a serious view in a characteristically entertaining way.’
The clash is fresh evidence that allies of Mr Cameron have not forgiven Mr Gove for the way they claim he ‘betrayed’ his former family friend by leading the campaign to leave the EU.
‘It was as if it was the first time Feldman had seen Gove since he did the dirty on Cameron in the referendum and the lid came off,’ said one MP. ‘It was electrifying.’
Days after the bust-up, Mr Gove and Lord Feldman met for breakfast where they agreed to ‘bury the hatchet’.
Allies of Mr Gove played down claims that he said he could support a so-called ‘Norway-style solution’ to solve the Brexit crisis, whereby the UK stays in the single market in return for continuing to pay into EU coffers and accepting freedom of movement.
Mr Gove and Lord Feldman were unavailable for comment.