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Although Mr S is running his own Michael Gove inspired Game of Thrones competition for readers, the Justice Secretary’s colleagues also can’t seem to resist sticking the knife-in when it comes to picking which machiavellian character Gove best resembles. After Gove turned on his former ally Boris Johnson, Ben Wallace, the Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston, has claimed that when
Auf wiedersehen, Boris. He’ll be back, like a blond, bloated Voldemort inhabiting another life form – Top Gear host? Archbishop of York? Or endless BBC camping tours of Britain on a bike, the Portillo of the Portacabin? As Boris’ agent collects the offers – and his publishers are still owed a Shakespeare biography by the
Labour has gone oddly quiet today, and that’s not just because the party is enjoying the mayhem in the Conservative leadership contest. After a very well-organised week of resignations, the rebels have now decided to sit back and wait for Jeremy Corbyn to come to terms with what the party he leads now looks like.
With Boris Johnson’s hopes of making it into Number 10 dashed, the former Mayor of London is now on a damage limitation exercise with the focus on retaining his dignity. Bruised from Theresa May’s dig yesterday that his EU negotiation experience amounts to his controversial purchase of three ‘nearly new’ water cannons, it’s safe to say that
Finally George Osborne has seen an upside to Britain voting to leave the European Union. The Chancellor used this morning to abandon another one of his own economic targets, blaming it on Brexit. He has long been warned by experts such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies that he is likely to fail to deliver
As Michael Gove finished speaking, the bookmakers have reported that Andrea Leadsom has overtaken the Justice Secretary when it comes to betting on who will be the next Tory leader. Theresa May remains the favourite at 1/3, with Leadsom at 7/2 and Gove at 12/1. Now of course the bookies are not clairvoyants and can
Michael Gove had two clear aims in his leadership campaign launch speech. The first was to explain what the hell he’d just done, which he did using emotive language and a trembling voice. Sounding almost like a Shakespearean hero struggling with destiny, the Justice Secretary insisted that he had ‘never thought I’d be in this
At times this week it has seemed as though Sarah Vine will soon be running the country — that is, if she isn’t secretly already. As well as informing readers, through her Daily Mail column, that she — along with her husband Michael Gove — has been ‘charged with implementing the instructions of 17 million people’
This piece first appeared in the Spectator in July 1916: Our men have advanced with an elan and a spirit to which the history of war affords no parallel. It is a commonplace of esoteric military history that there is a very seamy side to those glories of the assault upon which the ordinary describer
This past week has been a momentous one for our country, the like of which we have not seen for generations. Expectations have been upended, conventional wisdoms overturned, our nation’s destiny changed. At a time like this — a hinge in history — two paths beckon. We can either try to muddle through and hope for the best. Or
The Tory party is waking up this morning reeling from one of its most dramatic days since, well, last week, when the Prime Minister announced he was resigning. MPs from across the party are amazed at what they largely see as not just an act of treachery from Michael Gove but also a breach of
In the bloody annals of Westminster history, has there ever been an act of treachery greater than Michael Gove’s knifing of Boris Johnson yesterday? Perhaps not, but there is probably an analogy in the HBO series Game of Thrones. The Justice Secretary is a great fan of the series, and often uses it as a
This is not something that we are keen to discuss, for we are pretty sure that we have become far less puritanical, and that this is a good thing. But try this experiment. Imagine a slightly different version of Boris: funny, human, brilliant, a bit chaotic-seeming, and so on – but without any hint of sexual
Take a look in you wallet. As well as your debit card, receipts and photos of loved ones, what else is in there? A credit card? Two credit cards? Three? This week marked the 50th anniversary of the credit card. In the year that England last won the World Cup (yes, I know football is
UK shares have risen for the third successive day after Mark Carney said the Bank of England could cut interest rates following the Brexit vote. In a speech yesterday afternoon, the Bank of England governor hinted at fresh stimulus measures following the referendum. According to the BBC, the FTSE 100 index opened 0.63 per cent higher this
Even by the standards of Westminster politics, yesterday’s developments will be remembered for a long time. But meanwhile, in the short-term, Michael Gove’s decision to launch his own campaign – and Boris’ subsequent move to drop out – favours only one person in the Tory leadership race: Theresa May. The Home Secretary made her pitch
Who ever does become the new Conservative leader is going to face a difficult challenge uniting the party, let alone leading the Brexit negotiations. Following Michael Gove’s decision to run for Tory leader without bothering to tell Boris Johnson, a number of BoJo allies are distinctly unimpressed with the Justice Secretary. Perhaps none more so
On a day when the Conservative party leadership has been thrown into disarray, there ought to be an opportunity for Labour to turn the Tory chaos to their advantage. Instead, today is shaping up to be one of Corbyn’s most catastrophic days as leader yet. At today’s anti-Semitism inquiry press conference, Corbyn managed to throw the party into
This piece first appeared in The Spectator on 15 March 2014. A few weeks ago, I was a guest at a huge tea party for children’s authors, publishers and commentators at the South Bank, but the atmosphere, over the cupcakes and finger sandwiches, was decidedly frosty. There were three keynote speakers and their speeches all
So, what happened? As late as yesterday afternoon, Michael Gove was trying to persuade fellow Cabinet Ministers to back Boris Johnson. This morning, he announced that not only that he was running but that ‘Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead’. Hours later, Boris – reeling from this blow
Michael Gove’s newly-formed campaign team have been ringing around shocked Tory MPs in the past couple of hours to explain why the Justice Secretary pulled out of running Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign to launch his own bid, I understand. Dominic Raab, who had also been signed up to the Boris campaign, has been telling
Are we learning, rather painfully, what happens when you let journalists take over? Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are political hacks, by instinct and experience, so perhaps it is not surprising that Brexit is starting to look and feel like a post-modern sequel to the novel Scoop. Deadlines, panic, laziness, brilliance, incompetence, disaster, highs, lows, sheer bloody madness — this
Boris Johnson managed to surprise commentariats and colleagues alike today when he used his supposed leadership launch to announce that he was actually bowing out of the race. Johnson’s allies feel that he was forced into the decision after his fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove announced just an hour earlier that he would stand in his own
The 1922 Committee has announced the final line-up in the Tory leadership race, after an extremely dramatic morning. The official contenders are as follows: Stephen Crabb Liam Fox Michael Gove Andrea Leadsom Theresa May Conservative contest rules mean that MPs only need two nominees at this stage, and there will be tectonic shifts taking place
Jeremy Corbyn is absolutely right not to resign as Leader of the Labour Party. Those calling for his resignation – including those members of the Parliamentary Labour Party who supported the vote of no confidence against him – betray an astonishing misunderstanding of what the project called ‘The Labour Party’ is all about. Here’s the
Boris Johnson has ruled himself out of the Tory leadership race. Here is his full speech: Last week the people of this country voted to take a new path and a new direction for Britain in a decision that I passionately support. And it is vital now to see this moment for what it is.
‘My friends, you have waited for the punchline of this speech’ said Boris Johnson after 11 minutes of what sounded very much like a leadership speech. ‘That having consulted colleagues and in view of the circumstances in parliament I have concluded that person cannot be me.’ Theresa May has been slightly ahead of Boris in
Given that Jeremy Corbyn set-up Labour’s anti-Semitism inquiry to examine the extent of the problem in the party, he will have been hoping that it would help resolve the crisis. In fact, given that Shami Chakrabarti’s inquiry concluded today that the Labour Party is not overrun by anti-Semitism or other forms of racism (though there is an
Boris Johnson is about to go ahead with his leadership campaign launch without the man who has pulled so much of it together. MPs entering the event are baffled by this morning’s shock announcement by Michael Gove that he will run for leader himself: he was the man who invited them. Others, such as Dominic
Today Boris Johnson has found himself attacked on all sides with his leadership bid now seen to be over before it even began. With his fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove running against him for leader, Theresa May has used her own leadership launch to pour cold water on BoJo’s ability to lead the country. The most cutting remark
In February The Spectator’s Emily Hill explained why Michael Gove was the leader the Leave campaign needed – and why he is the right leader for shy Tories. Here’s her article: Lately, people only have to look at me to splurge their deepest, darkest secret. Last May, they did a terrible thing. They voted Tory.
‘My pitch is very simple, I’m Theresa May and I think I’m the best person to be Prime Minister’, she said. here’s the rest of the speech: I want to start by paying tribute to the Prime Minister. It’s easy to forget how far the Conservative Party and our country have come since David Cameron
Theresa May has launched her Conservative leadership bid this morning. Her scheduled announcement came just moments after Michael Gove announced that he was also entering the race in a surprise move, having broken ranks with Boris Johnson’s own campaign. In her speech, which you can read in full here, the Home Secretary said: ‘My pitch
How do you spot a good estate agent? No, I’m not about to tell a joke. It’s a serious question. With a baby on the way, the need for a double spare room for visiting first-time grandparents and more space to work from home, I’ve started to wonder how much longer our growing family will