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| * Paul Waugh |
Everyone expected today to be a day of quiet reflection as the David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn and Princes Charles, William and Harry attend the Thiepval Memorial To The Missing on the Somme.
Political reporters were hoping for a rest too, after an exhausting EU referendum campaign, Labour coup resignations and the closing of the Tory leader nominations. So it may be that Michael Gove is greeted by some rather ratty, knackered journalists, not overly keen on him deciding that a Friday morning was a good day to stage his first leadership speech.
Michael Heseltine couldn’t resist the military metaphor after Boris’s leadership bid was blown up by Michael Gove: “He’s like a general that led his army to the sound of guns and at the sight of the battlefield abandoned the field, to the claims of his adjutant who said he wasn’t up to the job in the first place. I have never seen so contemptible and irresponsible a situation.”
Cameron loyalists (and there are many) can’t work out which of Boris and Gove they loathe most right now, given both have acted like Oxford Union backstabbers. I wrote yesterday HERE of the shock in the room as Boris made his big reveal under the chandeliers. He had his own reference to Julius Caesar and betrayal. But many in No10, but it’s Hamlet that matters more: Boris was ‘hoist by his own petard’, the traitor himself betrayed.
The Sun’s headline ‘Brexecuted’ is my favourite, and the paper has some fascinating details. On the day Cameron announced his resignation, Gove told Boris he would not run against him. They met on the Sunday at Boris’s country cottage but things didn’t start well when Gove’s wife Sara tipped off the media. Things got worse when Team Gove weren’t given the full list of 90 MPs Boris had claimed he had.
Andrea Leadsom’s role in all this was one catalyst (though Team Boris say much of this is ‘arse-covering excuses’). She had been promised the job of Chancellor by Boris and the Sun reveals he had a hand-written note to give to her at the Tory summer party at the Hurlingham Club on Wednesday evening: “Dear Andrea, Delighted that you’re in our top 3, Yours Boris.” Nick Boles was meant to hand over the letter, but says Boris forgot to bring it. By the time it was found, Leadsom had left, thinking her 8pm deadline had not been met, and decided that night to run for the leadership herself. Oh, and Boris had promised to tweet out a clear message, “with the Gover and Andrea tomorrow”, but he never sent it.
The Telegraph has a nice read on how at 8.53am, Gove rang Boris campaign adviser Lynton Crosby to say ‘I’m running’. Crosby replied ‘Running what?’ Gove: “I’m running for the leadership myself’.
Was this all just Boris’s typically shambolic approach to politics rather than reneging on any deals to Leadsom and Gove? Was it Boris’s backtracking on key Leave messages on immigration and trade (it’s claimed he wanted EEA [membership of the European Economic Area] status). Is this just a cunning plan with George Osborne to kill Boris and then let May win? Was Gove just looking for a moment to strike? Who knows if we’ll find out soon.
Gove was ridiculed mercilessly yesterday for his previous pledges not to stand for leader, not least his lines that he lacked the character and strength to be PM. Gifs of his pratfall in Downing Street, him clapping like a seal, all the parent and teacher toxicity of his Education days, these could combine to make him a lethal combo of Miliband and early Hague if he were to be Tory leader. And unlike those two, he would be PM not Opposition Leader.
While many admire his intellect, he struggled even after his biggest speech of the Brexit campaign to say what kind of trading relationship the UK would have with the EU (the ‘Albania model’ was one risible moment). Whitehall insiders say he has no head for figures, his fear of flying makes him implausible as a globe-trotter in a new era of buccaneering Britain. Gove only needs Tory member votes, not those of the public as a general election now looks like being put back to 2020. But if he wins, he could set back the Tories’ image a generation, his enemies say. Anyone who can have the 'wild' Dominic Cummings so close to him has a serious judgement problem, No10 insiders insist.
The Times’ Phil Collins makes the counter point, however. Gove has shown the brains and the ruthlessness needed in a PM, he says. Key will be which way Leadsom’s votes go: to Gove or May?
Political reporters were hoping for a rest too, after an exhausting EU referendum campaign, Labour coup resignations and the closing of the Tory leader nominations. So it may be that Michael Gove is greeted by some rather ratty, knackered journalists, not overly keen on him deciding that a Friday morning was a good day to stage his first leadership speech.
Michael Heseltine couldn’t resist the military metaphor after Boris’s leadership bid was blown up by Michael Gove: “He’s like a general that led his army to the sound of guns and at the sight of the battlefield abandoned the field, to the claims of his adjutant who said he wasn’t up to the job in the first place. I have never seen so contemptible and irresponsible a situation.”
Cameron loyalists (and there are many) can’t work out which of Boris and Gove they loathe most right now, given both have acted like Oxford Union backstabbers. I wrote yesterday HERE of the shock in the room as Boris made his big reveal under the chandeliers. He had his own reference to Julius Caesar and betrayal. But many in No10, but it’s Hamlet that matters more: Boris was ‘hoist by his own petard’, the traitor himself betrayed.
The Sun’s headline ‘Brexecuted’ is my favourite, and the paper has some fascinating details. On the day Cameron announced his resignation, Gove told Boris he would not run against him. They met on the Sunday at Boris’s country cottage but things didn’t start well when Gove’s wife Sara tipped off the media. Things got worse when Team Gove weren’t given the full list of 90 MPs Boris had claimed he had.
Andrea Leadsom’s role in all this was one catalyst (though Team Boris say much of this is ‘arse-covering excuses’). She had been promised the job of Chancellor by Boris and the Sun reveals he had a hand-written note to give to her at the Tory summer party at the Hurlingham Club on Wednesday evening: “Dear Andrea, Delighted that you’re in our top 3, Yours Boris.” Nick Boles was meant to hand over the letter, but says Boris forgot to bring it. By the time it was found, Leadsom had left, thinking her 8pm deadline had not been met, and decided that night to run for the leadership herself. Oh, and Boris had promised to tweet out a clear message, “with the Gover and Andrea tomorrow”, but he never sent it.
The Telegraph has a nice read on how at 8.53am, Gove rang Boris campaign adviser Lynton Crosby to say ‘I’m running’. Crosby replied ‘Running what?’ Gove: “I’m running for the leadership myself’.
Was this all just Boris’s typically shambolic approach to politics rather than reneging on any deals to Leadsom and Gove? Was it Boris’s backtracking on key Leave messages on immigration and trade (it’s claimed he wanted EEA [membership of the European Economic Area] status). Is this just a cunning plan with George Osborne to kill Boris and then let May win? Was Gove just looking for a moment to strike? Who knows if we’ll find out soon.
Gove was ridiculed mercilessly yesterday for his previous pledges not to stand for leader, not least his lines that he lacked the character and strength to be PM. Gifs of his pratfall in Downing Street, him clapping like a seal, all the parent and teacher toxicity of his Education days, these could combine to make him a lethal combo of Miliband and early Hague if he were to be Tory leader. And unlike those two, he would be PM not Opposition Leader.
While many admire his intellect, he struggled even after his biggest speech of the Brexit campaign to say what kind of trading relationship the UK would have with the EU (the ‘Albania model’ was one risible moment). Whitehall insiders say he has no head for figures, his fear of flying makes him implausible as a globe-trotter in a new era of buccaneering Britain. Gove only needs Tory member votes, not those of the public as a general election now looks like being put back to 2020. But if he wins, he could set back the Tories’ image a generation, his enemies say. Anyone who can have the 'wild' Dominic Cummings so close to him has a serious judgement problem, No10 insiders insist.
The Times’ Phil Collins makes the counter point, however. Gove has shown the brains and the ruthlessness needed in a PM, he says. Key will be which way Leadsom’s votes go: to Gove or May?
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