Michael Gove: A near-mainstay in Whitehall across14 years of Tory rule

Michael Gove has served in numerous different Cabinet-level jobs under four of the last five prime ministers during the past 14 years of Conservative rule.

His political career will be remembered by some as Machiavellian after he engineered the downfall of his on-off friend Boris Johnson not once, but twice. Mr Gove is currently Levelling Up Secretary and also Rishi Sunak's minister for intergovernmental relations. It was as part of the Tory 'Notting Hill set' - an informal group of young Conservative figures who corralled around David Cameron's leadership - that Mr Gove first rose to prominence

By the time the voracious reader arrived to study English at Oxford in the 1980s, he was a Tory 'young fogey' in tweeds. It came amid claims private Tory polling had shown Mr Gove to be a toxic liability among teachers, following his efforts to push through radical reforms. After the Tories won a surprise majority at the 2015 general election, Mr Gove was promoted back to the top table of British politics after being handed the role of Justice Secretary by Mr Cameron.But Mr Cameron's decision to push ahead with an in/out EU vote caused a deep schism in the Conservative Party - with Mr Gove and the then-premier placing themselves on opposite sides of the split.

The referendum campaign culminated in a remarkable press conference on the morning of 24 June 2016, when both Mr Gove and Mr Johnson seemed stunned that they had emerged on the winning side. When Theresa May was eventually forced from office in the summer of 2019, Mr Gove mounted another bid for the Tory leadership

Tory insiders confirmed that Lord Frost had been kept off the approved candidates list after indicating he was unwilling to relinquish his peerage until the election was called. But, again, Mr Gove displayed a remarkable ability for political survival when he returned to Cabinet as Environment Secretary after Mrs May's decision to go for a snap general election in June 2017 back-fired and she lost the Tories' majority.

Mr Johnson went on to succeed Mrs May as PM and he and Mr Gove appeared to enjoy a return to harmonious relations when he appointed his former foe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

News Downing Street Conservatives Boris Johnson David Cameron Theresa May Michael Gove Rishi Sunak

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