Whoops! Cripes! The government is in another mess. The cry goes out: send for Gove. Like the elegant Jeeves to Boris’s Bertie Wooster, he answers his master’s desperate call, ready to extricate him from another self-inflicted mess. Now the PM’s latest troubles are not aunts but Ukrainians and the many thousands now fleeing their country.
The Home Office are predictably ineffective so it’s once more unto the breach for the oleaginous Aberdonian, the man with more jobs than George Osborne. Levelling up, saving the Union, intergovernmental relations and now processing refugees: is there anything the Gover can’t do? In his interview this morning with Sophy Ridge, the over-worked minister explained how he intends to dig Boris out of another hole by creating a new asylum scheme to process ‘tens of thousands’ of refugees.
But Steerpike was most intrigued to hear the following exchange about whether Gove himself will be taking a Ukrainian refugee into his home:
Ridge: So the idea is that you register an interest from tomorrow, Monday. Are you going to be registering an interest yourself?
Gove: Well, I’m exploring what I can do, yes. And I think there’ll be lots of people. I understand the leader of the Labour party as well is looking to see what they can do.
Ridge: So you will be signing up to try and offer a room?
Gove: Well, again, I’m going to make sure that I do everything I can as an individual to support. And again, each individual will have their own circumstances. It is the case that something like one in ten UK citizens, which is an amazing amount, have said that they want to do something to help. But we want to make sure that people are in a position to help because inevitably it’s a significant commitment and I recognise that we need to operate in different ways and in different phases to help people who are fleeing persecution.
Ridge: So are you offering a room, I’m still not completely clear?
Gove: Well, I’m in the process of seeking to see what I can do, yes.
Of course, politicians have not always kept their promises to take in refugees, with Yvette Cooper memorably failing to do so during the Syria crisis seven years ago. But what a thrilling chance for one Ukrainian, to get to live with Michael Gove. The prospect of living with a 54-year-old, soon-to-be divorced dad might not sound too appealing but the Cabinet minister’s current residence – a plush Carlton Gardens grace-and-favour estate – might soften the blow.
Given Gove’s well-publicised love of clubbing, let’s just hope the poor refugee gets some sleep.
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