Michael gove

Not the least extraordinary thing about the campaign to leave the European Union is that it turns out no-one was in charge of it. Things just happened and decisions were just made without the oversight or knowledge of the most senior politicians whose support for the project was reckoned, with some reason, to be crucial to its essential success.  If Boris Johnson gave the Leave campaign a popular – and populist – presence in the nation’s television studios, Michael Gove gave it a certain intellectual credibility amongst the – admittedly small – percentage of the electorate that worries about such things. And with good reason: Gove’s intelligence, if not always

After an away day at Chequers on Friday, the Cabinet has finally agreed on a compromise approach for negotiating the UK’s future Brexit deal. The proposals include a ‘free trade area for goods’, a joint institutional framework for the European Court of Justice and a ‘common rulebook’ to maintain high regulatory standards in a variety of areas. Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a prominent member of the official Leave Campaign, joined Andrew Marr to express why he felt his fellow Conservatives should now back the government’s new strategy: AM: Is your message to those colleagues wondering about what to do next – ‘This isn’t perfect… but it is by far the

With a twenty billion pound spending increase in the NHS, many ministers are quietly seething at the latest Treasury warning of ‘no more money left’ for other departments. Gavin Williamson wants an extra £20 billion for Defence, and is allegedly threatening to bring down the Prime Minister if he isn’t given it. Now another minister is preparing to go into bat for his department. One such Minister is Michael Gove. With the first Agriculture Bill since 1947 likely to come before the Commons before recess, the environment secretary keen to have adequate funding for the bill which is likely to define his stint in Defra. Whilst the Agriculture Bill will

Who is taking all the big, difficult decisions in government at the moment? Not Theresa May, who seems to be caught up in a particularly bad bout of prevarication. Sajid Javid’s announcement today that there will be a review into the use of medicinal cannabis came just 24 hours after his boss said there was a ‘very good reason’ for the current rules being in place. Yesterday May had also tried to block Javid from raising the matter at Cabinet, arguing that it hadn’t been on the agenda. It’s just one example of Cabinet ministers mounting very public campaigns for a policy change which they then get all the credit

To the launch of Onward, the new liberal Conservative think tank. A who’s who of the Tory party, including Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly, gathered in Parliament’s Churchill room to raise a glass to the new venture – headed by Theresa May’s former policy wonk Will Tanner. Launching the event were the new dream team: Ruth Davidson and Michael Gove. Neither were shy in coming forward. The Scottish Conservatives leader began her speech by joking that the reason she had been invited was to prove the Tory party is diverse: ‘In future when think tanks ask please, can we get a pregnant lesbian, the answer for all those

After the EU referendum, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were such a dream team that the pair looked destined to take the top two jobs in government. However, some political back-stabbing on Gove’s part soon put an end to that friendship and, as history shows, paved the way for Theresa May to become Prime Minister. This week, the Windrush row has reminded the Conservatives the hard way of the problems with her appointment. As Fraser details in his Spectator cover piece, there’s growing concern among Conservative Brexiteers that the problem with having a Remainer in No. 10 is that they ‘misread’ the referendum result and see it as a ‘battle

Here we go. Although Theresa May and her government are meant to be on a Brussels charm offensive ahead of next month’s crunch EU council meeting, Michael Gove couldn’t resist a dig at the other side today. The Defra minister – who has recast himself as an eco-warrior in recent months – took issue with a meeting between Donald Tusk and Michel Barnier on Brexit. The problem? The pair used plastic bottles – a strict no-no in May’s green Cabinet. Why the plastic bottles @eucopresident? You should be aligning with us in ditching this environment-damaging habit… #greenbrexit https://t.co/oODv4EiClt — Michael Gove (@michaelgove) February 27, 2018 It seems the reasons to

For people who love the natural world, each new season brings new excitements. We are a nation of nature lovers. We feed the birds in our gardens and we revere David Attenborough. Which makes it surprising that – until now – governments have not cottoned on to how much of a vote-winner concerted action to restore and protect nature can be. Year in year out the abundance of life around us diminishes. Most adults can remember car windscreens splattered with dead insects after even the shortest of summer journeys. No longer. Insect populations are crashing almost everywhere, and with them everything else. Starlings, which were once so numerous that their

Whether it’s authentic or not, the Conservative party is going green. Following Michael Gove’s reinvention as resident eco-warrior, the party has been pushing green policies – from extending plastic bag charges to saving trees in Sheffield – in a bid to prove they care. Today Gove’s Cabinet colleagues were brought into the fold – each being gifted a re-usable coffee cup this morning at Cabinet. However, could it be another Cabinet member who is really behind the green revolution? Step forward Andrea Leadsom. It’s been remarked to Mr S that Gove’s predecessor in Defra ‘never misses the chance’ to mention that many of good news green initiatives coming from that

What is Michael Gove up to? The Environment Secretary seems to be on a tree-hugging rampage at the moment, announcing a new green measure every week. Not content with unveiling the Tories’ 25 year environment plan last week, Gove has given an interview to today’s Sunday Times in which he attacks the water companies for using tax havens. The water companies are interesting enough, given Jeremy Corbyn has called for them to be renationalised. But what’s really revealing about what Gove’s overall mission is comes later in the interview, when he says: ‘Brexit creates opportunities, particularly in my area. Brexit could be the catalyst for some of the biggest, boldest

The farming community was hoping, until a few days ago, that Michael Gove might be moved to pastures new in the reshuffle that hardly happened on Monday. One Yorkshire neighbour of mine with a big muckspreader used to refer to the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs as ‘the Grim Reaper’. But in Gove’s speech to the Oxford Farming Conference last week, he seems to have pulled off the political trick of winning headlines about ‘delivering a Green Brexit’ that pleased the urban middle classes but might previously have had farmers reaching for their pitchforks — while in fact reassuring most of them that, contrary to previous