Gove accused of being on manoeuvres after courting backbenchers

‘Michael has the advantage this time of having been scrupulously loyal to Boris Johnson’

‘Michael speaking to a group of people can hardly be said to be the same as Liz Truss’ s [“fizz with Liz”] events’

MICHAEL GOVE has been accused of embarking on “manoeuvres” after it emerged that he courted dozens of Tory backbenchers at a dinner hosted by the MP who ran his last leadership bid.

The Levelling Up Secretary addressed up to 40 MPs at a pub near the central London home of Mel Stride, who held similar events with Mr Gove as guest speaker in the run-up to the 2019 leadership campaign.

An MP said the event, on Nov 24, was ostensibly organised under the auspices of Deep Blue, a dining club founded by Mr Stride, chairman of the Treasury select committee, and a member of the Cabinet for the past two months of Theresa May’s premiership. A source close to Mr Gove said Boris Johnson even addressed the group at Mr Stride’s home, before leaving them to decamp to the pub for a speech by his former leadership rival.

The source said: “Any suggestion this was a leadership event are categorically untrue. The PM, ministers and [ministerial aides] were also in attendance.”

But the MP, who attended a similar event hosted by Mr Stride in the run-up to the last leadership contest, insisted that Mr Gove appeared to be on “manoeuvres” once again, stating: “I think everyone sees through it but it’s always under the guise of ‘let’s have a policy discussion’.”

The MP added that their colleagues were drawn to Mr Stride’s events partly due to “intrigue” over his large home, which is “a very nice place”.

A supporter of Mr Gove insisted that Mr Johnson’s former leadership rival was “always loyal” to Mr Johnson, whom he betrayed during the 2016 contest.

“Michael going to speak to a group of people about housing can hardly be said to be the same as [Liz] Truss,” a source said. Ms Truss, the Foreign Secretary, is said to have held “fizz with Liz” evenings for 2019 intake backbenchers in an effort to lay the groundwork for her own future bid.

Many MPs still regard Mr Gove with suspicion following his eleventh-hour decision to withdraw his support from Mr Johnson’s 2016 bid to succeed Theresa May in order to launch his own.

The move led to Mr Johnson calling off his campaign altogether, and is seen by many as having fatally wounded Mr Gove’s chances of becoming Conservative leader.

The supporter of Mr Gove added: “The advantage Michael has got this time is that he has been scrupulously loyal to Boris, whereas [there are] rumours about [difficult] relations between No 10 and the Treasury, and about Truss’s manoeuvres.”

While the source insisted that Mr Gove was not actively seeking to become Prime Minister, they reflected that were Mr Johnson to stand down imminently, “the circumstances would be incredibly beneficial for him in a way that they weren’t previously”, in 2016 and 2019. “Gove is ready to go,” the minister’s supporter said, adding that Mr Sunak and Ms Truss both had less experience as secretaries of state.

Mr Stride’s role hosting events for Mr Gove harks back to the 2019 leadership contest when backbenchers were courted at private dinners in the run-up to the then environment secretary formally launching his bid to succeed Mrs May.

At one dinner hosted at Mr Stride’s central London home in May 2019, Mr Gove told 10 backbenchers that he was a “unity” candidate with “vision” and proven “grip” over government departments.

During the 2019 campaign, Mr Gove’s leadership pitch was peppered with jibes directed at the now Prime Minister.