We need a PM with principle – it’s Gove
If you believe that decisiveness and ruthlessness are essential to the character of a leader, then the Tories should choose Michael Gove as theirs without delay. I discount the absurdity, put about by hysterical and disappointed careerists who saw Boris Johnson as their meal-ticket, that Mr Gove engaged in “treachery”. He simply spent a few days watching Mr Johnson at close quarters trying to prepare for a prime ministership, and realised his conscience would not allow him to support that idea. Those of us who have also had the chance to work closely with Mr Johnson were unsurprised.
Accusations of treachery also come ill from what was the Johnson camp, given the lengths to which some of them went long before the referendum to organise drinks parties to allow Mr Johnson to propitiate his selectorate: an action that could only be interpreted as undermining David Cameron. Rampant ambition has had what, in the Tory party, is its usual reward. Now what is required is a sense of perspective, an end to the methods of the Oxford Union, and a concentration on stabilising our government. At least it can be said of all the candidates that none is likely to lead the country to catastrophe.
It seems Theresa May is attracting support from MPs as a unity candidate for a peculiar reason: that she was on the losing side (albeit half-heartedly) in the referendum. The Brexiteers have had their victory: therefore the remainers ought to have a prime minister. It is a logic I cannot follow. Mrs May made the wrong choice and then lacked the guts to argue vociferously for her point of view. The most important act of the new prime minister will be to preside over the successful extrication of the United Kingdom from the European Union. It would seem sensible that someone who believes profoundly in that outcome, as Mr Gove manifestly does, should take charge of securing it.
Indeed, we are told it was precisely because Mr Johnson appeared to be backing down on border control that Mr Gove realised he could not be trusted and had to be challenged. We shall negotiate the future of our relations with Europe with some highvalue cards in our hand: not least our massive trade deficit with Europe, which signals why they need us so much more than we need them. Ruthlessness and decisiveness will be useful in those circumstances, as will a deep conviction that it was right to vote Leave.
The Brexiteers are fortunate to have three high-class candidates: not just Mr Gove, but Liam Fox, consistent in his espousal of conservatism over many years, and Andrea Leadsom, perhaps the most rational and impressive participant in the Tories’ Leave campaign. All would do what is necessary for our country, and it is hard to choose between them. All should have high office in the next administration, not least to guarantee the advance of principled conservatism. But after much reflection it is clear to me that the best qualified of these three first-class candidates is Mr Gove.
His campaign launch on Friday made it clear he would depart from some of the underachieving policies of the Cameron years as well as implement the will of the British people as expressed in the referendum last week. His commitment to introduce a pointsbased immigration system, long advocated by Nigel Farage, was especially welcome. His record in government is exemplary: he was a superb education secretary, idiotically removed from the post because he upset the Bolsheviks in the teaching unions. His management of the Ministry of Justice was universally praised by judges and jurists, who saw the system developed by his predecessor leading to disaster without urgent change. He is supremely capable.
Mr Gove will not have an easy ride. I imagine Mrs May will win the first round of the leadership contest. He will have to convince colleagues he can match the principles and sincerity of the admirable Mrs Leadsom, and that his greater experience and his vision are of more value than hers, before getting into the last two against the Home Secretary. If he should beat Mrs Leadsom he should regard her as a close, important and influential colleague and work in accord with her ideas, which are very similar to his; and defer to her financial experience, which is considerable. The idea of her as chancellor, and Dr Fox (who has superb contacts in America) as foreign secretary, would be uplifting.
The chink in his armour was his friend and adviser Dominic Cummings, universally detested by Tory MPs who have encountered him, and who ran the Vote Leave campaign deplorably. Too many MPs cited Mr Cummings as a reason for not supporting Mr Gove, and he was a subsidiary cause of his rift with Mr Johnson. Mr Gove, as a highly intelligent man, has taken the hint, and sensibly ruled out Mr Cummings for a job in Downing Street.
If Mr Gove reaches the last two he has a strong case to put before Conservative activists: not just the prosperity-expanding case presented to the British people at his launch, which showed a wide grasp of policy and a commitment to honour the democratic will expressed in the referendum, but the case of a man who has shown he is more in step with the conservative movement and the mood of the British people than Mrs May. More to the point, Mr Gove was a minister who took the risk of going against the grain, and who had the courage to stand up for what he believes in.
I do not doubt that Mr Gove acts, now and always, out of a conviction about what is right for our country – as he did in the referendum – and not out of rampant personal ambition.
In that he is unlike Mrs May, indeed unlike most prominent politicians since the Thatcher era. It is time we had a government built on principle, and he is the best candidate to provide it.
The Brexiteers are fortunate to have three high-class candidates