Now that Michael Gove has been eliminated from the Tory leadership contest it is worth examining how he ever came to be in it in the first place.
Tory party leadership: Second round results pic.twitter.com/LNlOCcrXyP
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 7, 2016
People are saying that Gove genuinely never did want to be Tory leader, let alone prime minister – a point he freely made during the referendum debate when he said: “The one thing I can tell you – there are lots of talented people who could be prime minister after David Cameron, but count me out.”
Gove was almost certainly telling the truth.
Here’s why:
One deeply personal reason for Gove’s lack of ambition is that he is highly protective of his personal life, specifically the fact that he is adopted.
Gove does not know who his birth mother is and certainly didn’t want anyone else trying to find out by using some kind of public interest justification once he became leader.
Hence his half-hearted pitch when he launched his bid last week.
On that occasion he said: “I know my limitations – whatever charisma is I don’t have it; whatever glamour may be, I don’t think anyone could ever associate me with it.”
Infamously, Gove entered the leadership race at the eleventh hour, in the process knifing Boris Johnson. The reason he ended up standing so hastily is that he was prevailed upon to do so by his close friend, George Osborne.
It is said that Osborne asked Gove to throw his hat into the ring order to avoid the danger of Johnson from being anywhere near the final ballot.
Why so?
Osborne knew that if Johnson made it to the last two, he would likely be chosen by Tory Party members as the next leader and, therefore, the next prime minister.
In order to save the Conservative Party from further scrutiny – which may or may not have been damaging – about Johnson’s private life, Osborne urged Gove to stand.
Gove was a put-up job.
He never wanted to be leader and now he won’t be leader.
His reputation has certainly suffered over the Johnson knifing, but since the pair were not close before the referendum campaign, it is not as though Gove has lost a soul mate having ended Johnson’s chances of becoming PM.
Whoever is the next Tory leader will offer Gove a senior post in her government, should he want it.
So, Gove’s political career is not dead, it’s just bruised – for now.
And the identity of his birth mother will remain a secret, just as he prefers it, for perfectly understandable reasons.
