Michael gove biography school projects

Scottish journalist, author, and retired politician (born )

"Gove" redirects here. For other uses, see Gove (disambiguation).

Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August ) is a Scottish writer, author, and retired politician who served in various Cabinet positions under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

Apart from periods as a backbencher from July to June and July to October , he served continuously in the Cabinet from to He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath from to A member of the Conservative Party, Gove twice ran to get Leader of the Conservative Party, in and , finishing in third place on both occasions.

He has been editor of The Spectator since October

Born in Aberdeen, Gove was in care until being adopted aged four months old, after which he was raised in the Kittybrewster area of the municipality. He attended the independent Robert Gordon's College and studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

He then began a career as a journalist at The Press and Journal before having a long tenure as a leader writer at The Times. Elected for Surrey Heath at the general election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Education in the Cameron–Clegg coalition.

He terminated the previous Labour government's Building Schools for the Future programme, reformed A-Level and GCSE qualifications in favour of final examinations, and responded to the Trojan Horse scandal. Four teachers unions passed motions of no confidence in his policies at their conferences.

In the cabinet reshuffle, he was moved to the post of Government Chief Whip. Following the general election and the formation of the majority Cameron government, Gove was promoted to Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor.

As the co-convenor of Vote Leave, Gove was seen, along with fellow Conservative MP Boris Johnson, as one of the most prominent figures of the referendum on EU membership. He was campaign manager for Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership election but withdrew his support on the morning Johnson was due to declare and announced his own candidacy, finishing behind Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom.

Upon the appointment of May as prime minister, Gove was dismissed from the Cabinet but joined the second May government as Secretary of Declare for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs following the general election.

In his second leadership invite, in , Gove finished behind Boris Johnson and Jeremy Stalk . Following Johnson's victory, Gove was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with responsibility for no-deal Brexit preparations. He took on the additional role of Minister for the Cabinet Office in the cabinet reshuffle and was responsible for coordinating the government's response to the COVID pandemic.

After the cabinet reshuffle, he served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations until telling Johnson to resign during the July government crisis and being dismissed by Johnson.

Under Rishi Sunak, he was reinstated to his previous roles of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. He stood down as an MP at the general election. In September of the same year, Gove was appointed editor of The Spectator.

Early life and education (–)

Gove was born Graeme Andrew Logan on 26 August His hereditary mother, whom he originally understood to have been an unmarried Edinburgh student, was in proof a year-old cookery demonstrator.

Gove regarded Edinburgh as his birthplace until it was revealed in a biography in that he was born in a maternity hospital in Fonthill Road, Aberdeen. Logan was put into nurture soon after he was born.

At the age of four months he was adopted by a couple in Aberdeen, Ernest and Christine Gove, by whom he was brought up.

After he joined the Gove family, Logan's name was changed to Michael Andrew Gove. His adoptive father, Ernest, ran a fish processing business and his adoptive mother, Christine, was a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen, later working at the Aberdeen School for the Deaf.

Gove, his parents, and his adoptive sister Angela Christine lived in a small property in the Kittybrewster area of Aberdeen, before relocating to Rosehill Drive.

He was educated at two declare schools (Sunnybank Primary School and Kittybrewster Primary School), and later, on the recommendation of his primary school teacher, he sat and passed the entrance exam for the independent Robert Gordon's College.

In October , he wrote an apology letter to his former French teacher for misbehaving in class.

Gove joined the Labour Party in and campaigned on behalf of the party for the general election. Outside of school, he spent second as a Sunday school educator at Causewayend Church.

As he entered sixth year he had to apply for a scholarship as his family fell on difficult economic circumstances. He passed the scholarship exam and served as a school prefect in his final two years.

From to he studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, during which time he joined the Conservative Party.

Gove was appointed as Education Secretary with the formation of the Cameron-Clegg coalitionhaving previously been the shadow secretary of state for children, schools and families. His earliest moves included reorganising his department, [ 1 ] announcing plans to permit schools rated as Outstanding by Ofsted to become academies[ 2 ] and cutting the previous government's school-building programme. He opened the National Pupil Database and introduced the phonics check, a reading test for year 1 pupils. The later parts of his tenure were dominated by the Trojan Horse scandal.

He became a member of the Oxford University Conservative Association and was secretary of Aberdeen SouthYoung Conservatives. He helped write speeches for Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet ministers, including Peter Lilley and Michael Howard. During his first year, he met future Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ran his campaign to be President of the Oxford Union.

In an interview with Andrew Gimson, Gove remarked that at Oxford, Johnson was "quite the most brilliant extempore speaker of his generation". Gove was elected as Oxford Union President a year after Johnson. He graduated with an upper second class bachelor's degree.

Career

Journalism (–)

After university, when applying for a job at the Conservative Research Department, Gove was told he was "insufficiently political" and "insufficiently Conservative", so he turned to journalism.^[27] He first found employment on the Peterborough column of The Daily Telegraph, after passing an interview with Max Hastings.

Struggling to maintain his career in London, he moved back to Aberdeen and became a trainee journalist at The Press and Journal, where he spent several months on strike in the – dispute over union recognition and representation. From to , he worked as a reporter for Scottish Television, with a terse interlude at Grampian Television in Aberdeen.

After moving to national television in , Gove worked for the BBC's On the Record, and the Channel 4 current affairs programme A Stab in the Dark, alongside David Baddiel and Tracey MacLeod.

In he began working for the BBC's Today programme. In he was identified by The Guardian as part of a group of "a new breed of 21st-century Tories". He broke the news of the Conservative Party management election thanks to his connections with the upper echelons of the party.

Gove was a member of the winning team in Grampian Television's quiz exhibit Top Club,^[39] and played the school chaplain in the family comedy A Feast at Midnight.^[40]

In January he joined The Times as a leader writer and assumed posts as its comment editor, news editor, assistant editor and Saturday editor.

He also wrote a weekly column on politics and current affairs for the paper from until and contributed to The Times Literary Supplement, Prospect magazine and The Spectator. He was on excellent terms with the owner of the paper, Rupert Murdoch, whom Gove described in evidence before the Leveson Inquiry as "one of the most impressive and significant figures of the last 50 years".

He wrote a sympathetic biography of Michael Portillo, Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right, and a highly critical study of the Northern Ireland peace process, The Price of Peace, where he compared the Good Friday Agreement to appeasement of the Nazis in the s.

During his period at The Times he also broadcast regularly, on programmes including Any Questions?, The Week in Westminster, The Book Quiz, Moral Maze and Newsnight Review (all on the BBC).

Gove co-founded Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank launched in , and chaired it for three years.

He was commissioned to write a biography of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, in

Early parliamentary career (–)

Gove won the Conservative candidacy for Surrey Heath on 5 July , after the sitting MP Nick Hawkins was deselected by the local Conservative association.^[54] He then arranged to leave the staff of The Times, but was retained on a contract to draft a weekly column for the newspaper and other such pieces as might be commissioned ad hoc.

He entered the Property of Commons after being elected in the general election, winning by 10, votes and a % majority.^[55] After being selected as an MP he stood down from Moral Maze but continued to appear on Newsnight Review.

He was commissioned to write a book on terrorism in , Celsius 7/7, which was published in

In he was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning. During his time as an MP, as well as his column for The Times he also wrote columns for Building magazine and the newspaper Scotland on Sunday.

He made his maiden speech on 7 June , focusing on national security. Gove was seen as part of an influential set of Conservatives referred to as the Notting Hill Set, which included Conservative leaderDavid Cameron, future Chancellor of the ExchequerGeorge Osborne, Ed Vaizey, Nick Boles and Rachel Whetstone.

Over a five-month period between December and April , Gove claimed more than £7, on a property bought with his wife Sarah Vine, in Around a third of the money was spent at OKA, an upmarket interior design company established by Annabel Astor, David Cameron's mother-in-law.

Shortly afterwards he reportedly 'flipped' his designated second home, a property for which he claimed around £13, to cover stamp duty. Gove also claimed for a cot mattress, despite children's items being banned under updated Commons rules.

Gove said he would repay the claim for the cot mattress, but maintained that his other claims were "below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture" and that moving property was necessary "to effectively discharge my parliamentary duties".

While he was moving between homes, on one occasion he stayed at the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, following a constituency engagement, charging the taxpayer more than £ per night's stay.

Gove won the "Rising Star Award" at the February Channel 4 political awards.

On 2 July , he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (a newly created department set up by Gordon Brown), shadowing Ed Balls. In the role he advocated the introduction of a Swedish-style education voucher system, whereby parents would choose where their toddler would be educated, with the state paying what they would have cost in a mention school.

He also advocated Swedish-style free schools, to be managed by parents and funded by the state, with the possibility that such schools would be allowed to be run on a for-profit model. Gove was involved in founding the right-leaning magazine Standpoint, to which he has occasionally contributed.^[63] He contracted H1N1 swine flu during the influenza pandemic.

In January , he gave up his column for The Times, in keeping with a policy governing Shadow Cabinet activity laid down by David Cameron at that age. Prior to the general election, most of his questions in Commons debates concerned children, schools and families, education, local government, Council Tax, foreign affairs and the environment.

At the general election, Gove was re-elected, winning an increased majority of 17, and with an increased vote share of %.^[66]

Education Secretary (–)

Main article: Michael Gove as Learning Secretary

With the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government accompanying the hung parliament after the general election, Gove became Secretary of State for Education.

His first moves included reorganising his department,^[67] announcing plans to consent schools rated as Outstanding by Ofsted to become academies, and cutting the previous government's school-building programme.

He apologised, however, when the list of terminated school-building projects he had released was found to be inaccurate; the list was reannounced several times before it was finally accurately published.

In July , Gove said that Labour had failed in their attempt to break the link between social class and school achievement despite spending billions of pounds: quoting research, he indicated that by the age of six years, children of low ability from affluent homes were still out-performing brighter children from poorer backgrounds.

At a House of Commons Education Handpick Committee he said that this separation of achievement grew larger throughout pupils' school careers, stating, "In effect, rich thick kids do better than poor clever children when they arrive at school [and] the situation as they go through gets worse".

Gove's second home was not in his constituency, but in Elstead, in the South West Surrey constituency.

Gove sold the property and began to commute to his constituency.

During the Conservative Party Conference, Gove announced that the primary and secondary-school national curricula for England would be restructured, and that study of authors such as Byron, Keats, Jane Austen, Dickens and Thomas Hardy would be reinstated in English lessons as part of a plan to improve children's grasp of English literature and language.

Academies were not required to follow the national curriculum, and so weren't affected by the reforms. Children who failed to write coherently and grammatically, or who were weak in spelling, were penalised in the modern examinations.

Standards in mathematics and science were also strengthened.

British Conservative Party politician Michael Gove served as Secretary of Declare for Education from to Gove was appointed as Education Secretary with the formation of the Cameron-Clegg coalition, having previously been the shadow secretary of declare for children, schools and families.

Gove won the "Minister of the Year" award at the Spectator awards,

In March , Gove was criticised for not sympathy the importance of school architecture and accused of having misrepresented the cost. In February , he had told Parliament that one individual had made £1,, in one year when the true figure was £, for five advisers at different times over a four-year period.

During the Cameron–Clegg ministry, Gove was the subject of repeated criticism for alleged attempts to avoid the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The criticism surrounded Gove's use of various personal email accounts to send emails that allegedly related to his departmental responsibilities. The allegations suggested that Gove and his advisers believed they could avoid their correspondence being subject to release of information requests, as they believed that their private email accounts were not subject to the Freedom of Information Operate.

In September , the Financial Times reported that Gove had used an undisclosed private email account—called "Mrs Blurt"—to discuss government business with advisers. In Rally the Information Commissioner ruled that because emails the Financial Times had requested contained public knowledge they could be the subject of a freedom of communication request and ordered the communication requested by the paper to be disclosed.

It was also alleged by the Financial Times that Gove and his advisors had destroyed email correspondence in order to avoid freedom of information requests. The allegation was denied by Gove's department, which stated that deleting email was simply part of good notebook housekeeping.

In June , Michael Portillo backed Gove to be a serious contender in a future race for the Conservative Party leadership,^[82] though Gove had said in an interview a rare months before that "I'm constitutionally incapable of it.

There's a special extra quality you necessitate that is indefinable, and I know I don't have it. There's an equanimity, an impermeability and a courage that you need. There are some things in life you know it's better not to try."

Gove was criticised by teachers unions for his attempts to overhaul English education.^[84] At the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Annual Conference in March a motion of no-confidence in Gove was passed.

The next month the National Union of Teachers passed a vote of no confidence in Gove at their annual conference and called for his resignation.

In light of a fresh biography, I revisit the policies and philosophy of the UK’s most influential education minister of recent times. In this latest edition of ‘we read the books so you don’t acquire to’, I’ve been working my way through a new biography of Michael Gove, A Guy in a Hurry, by.

The National Association of Head Teachers and NASUWT also passed motions of no confidence at their conferences that year.

Chief Whip (–)

On 15 July , Gove's four-year stint in charge of the Department for Education came to an end when he was dismissed as Secretary of Express for Education and replaced by former Treasury Minister Nicky Morgan in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle.

Gove was moved to the post of Government chief whip, which was portrayed as a demotion by his detractors; Prime Minister Cameron denied this was the case. Gove told BBC News that he had mixed emotions about starting the unused role, saying it was a privilege to become Chief Whip but that leaving the Department for Education was "a wrench".

The position came with a £30, pay cut, and a specific media role saw Gove on television and radio "more than a traditional Chief Whip would be".

He missed his first House of Commons vote in the new role, as explained by Shadow Commons Leader Angela Eagle; "Gove not only confused his first vote but managed to get stuck in the toilet in the wrong lobby". Gove remained in the upload of chief whip until May , when the role was taken over by Mark Harper.

Justice Secretary (–)

At the general election, Gove was again re-elected, increasing his majority to 24, and increasing his vote distribute to %.^[96] Following the election, Cameron promoted Gove as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in his newly formed Cabinet.

He was celebrated in December for scrapping the courts fee introduced by his predecessor, Chris Grayling. The fee had been heavily criticised for, among other things, causing naive people to plead guilty out of financial concerns. Gove removed the book limit on prison books introduced by Grayling, arguing that books increased literacy and numeracy, skills needed for making prisoners a "potential asset to society".

The move, effective from September , was welcomed by Frances Cook of the Howard League for Penal Reform. Gove was also praised for his prominent role in scrapping a British bid for a Saudi prison contract.

Within three months of his taking office, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) voted to stop taking new work in protest at Gove's insistence that they work for lower fees.

The CBA subsequently praised his "courage" in reversing the proposed cuts. On 14 July Gove was removed from the position of justice secretary by the new prime minister, Theresa May.^[]

EU referendum ()

Gove was a prominent figure in the campaign for Britain to leave the EU in the referendum and described his decision to take that side as "the most tough decision of my political life".

He and his family spent Christmas with the Camerons at Chequers where, according to Craig Oliver, Cameron was under the impression that Gove would assist remaining in the EU. Despite this, Gove decided to aid the Leave campaign. At the beginning of March , he was appointed co-convenor of Vote Leave, with Labour MP Gisela Stuart, and given responsibility for chairing the campaign committee.

He argued Britain would be "freer, fairer and better off" for disappearing, and that "[t]he day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the track we want." When in an interview it was claimed that there was no expert notion to support this, Gove remarked that "the people of this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong." However, interviewer Faisal Islam interrupted Gove after the pos "experts", causing some sources to report that he had made a general statement that "the people have had enough of experts".

In , Louise Richardson, the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, said she was "embarrassed" that Gove was an alumnus, on account of these comments.

In his memoir For the Record, Cameron described Gove during this period as "mendacious", adding: "One quality shone through, disloyalty.

Disloyalty to me and, later, disloyalty to Boris [Johnson]".

Leadership election ()

After Cameron announced his intention to resign as prime minister, Gove was not a candidate, having said in the past that he had no interest in becoming prime minister.

Instead, he was seen as a strong, highly influential supporter of Johnson for that role. In a move that surprised most political analysts, Gove withdrew his support for Johnson on 30 June , hours before the deadline, without any previous observe to Johnson and announced his own candidacy in the direction election.

Subsequently, Johnson declined to run.

The Telegraph wrote in an opinion piece that Gove's conduct in undermining Johnson's leadership aspirations constituted "the most spectacular political assassination in a generation" while The Guardian labelled it as a "Machiavellian move".

Gove said: "I wanted to help build a team behind Boris Johnson so that a politician who argued for leaving the European Union could lead us to a better future.

But I possess come, reluctantly, to the decision that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.

Apart from periods as a backbencher from July to June and July to Octoberhe served continuously in the Cabinet from to A member of the Conservative PartyGove twice ran to develop Leader of the Conservative Partyin andfinishing in third place on both occasions. He has been editor of The Spectator since October Born in AberdeenGove was in care until being adopted aged four months old, after which he was raised in the Kittybrewster area of the city.

I have, therefore, decided to put my name forward for the leadership. I need there to be an expose and positive debate about the path the country will now take. Whatever the verdict of that debate I will respect it. In the next several days I will lay out my plan for the Combined Kingdom which I hope can provide unity and change."

By 5 July , Gove was in third place in the management election, behind May and Andrea Leadsom; the latter had gained an endorsement from Johnson.

Some political analysts predicted that Gove might quit the race if he was unable to defeat Leadsom in the first spherical of voting. Later that evening, it was announced that May had won the first curved of voting, with support from MPs, while Andrea Leadsom received 66 votes and Gove trailed with ^[] Gove was eliminated in the second ballot after receiving 46 votes, compared to for May and 84 for Leadsom.

He subsequently told the media that he was "naturally disappointed" and described his two opponents as "formidable politicians", welcoming the fact that the next prime minister would be female. He also encouraged a "civilised, inclusive, positive and optimistic debate".^[]

Return to the backbenches (–)

On 14 July , Gove was dismissed by the prime minister, Theresa May.

According to Jon Craig of Sky News, Gove was told to "go and absorb about loyalty on the backbenches" in a two-minute meeting with May.

In the aftermath of the EU referendum, Gove was accused by Nick Clegg of organism the source of a claim by The Sun that Queen Elizabeth II made comments supportive of Brexit in a intimate lunch at Windsor Castle.

Clegg told a BBC documentary that Gove "obviously communicated it – well, I know he did".The Sun said it had "multiple sources" and was confident its report was true.

In October , Gove was elected to the Exiting the European Union Handpick Committee.

That month, he was re-hired by The Times as a weekly columnist and guide reviewer. As well as attending meetings of the newspaper's politics team, Gove was dispatched to the United States to describe on campaign rallies in the upcoming presidential election.

In December , Gove defended a Vote Depart claim that an additional £&#;million a week could be spent on the NHS when Britain left the EU.

Gove said the figure was robust and it was up to the Government to decide how to spend it.

In his capacity as a writer for The Times, Gove gave the first British post-election interview to Donald Trump in January , along with Kai Diekmann from Bild, making him the second British politician to meet Trump as President-elect of the United States after Nigel Farage.

Despite preferring Hillary Clinton to Trump as President of the United States, Gove's interview and consequent defence of it was seen as praising the President-elect unduly.

Environment Secretary (–)

At the snap general election, Gove was again re-elected, increasing his majority to 24, and increasing his vote share to %.^[] Following the election, Gove was promoted to Secretary of Mention for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by May during a reshuffle.

Gove said he "was quite surprised" to be asked to join the Cabinet after May dismissed him in after she became prime minister.

Following his appointment, Gove announced that a microbead ban would be set into place by the cease of However, the ban arrived in early It meant that manufacturers could no longer generate the tiny beads used in cosmetics and care products.

Another ban came in June which stopped shops from selling products that contained the beads. The reasoning behind the ban was to stop the beads harming marine life.

In July , Gove announced that a fuel combustion vehicle ban will be set into place due to wind pollution.

However, his ideas acquire continued to inform education policy, and his legacy lives on, not least through the continuing work of his acolyte Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister whom I have written about before on this blog. It may make him more inclined to seek confrontation, and to oppose what he sees as the status quo. And while in some ways, his ideas might appear distinctively British or indeed English — despite his Scottish originsin other ways they are symptomatic of broader international trends in educational policy-making. On the one hand, Gove could be described as a cultural restorationist.

He said that the exclude would take effect by and end the sales of novel fuel combustion cars, trucks, vans, and buses that have petrol and diesel engines in the UK. The ban does not include plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Gove introduced a ban on bee-harming pesticides like neonicotinoids.

He was commended by Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven for his sturdy stance on issues like bee-harming pesticides, single-use plastic and the future of the internal combustion engine", adding "Gove has defied many people's expectations on the environment".

In October , Gove issued an apology for a joke which compared tough interviews on the Today programme to a sexual encounter with Harvey Weinstein.

He was criticised by political opponents who felt allegations of sexual abuse were not a suitable subject for jokes.

Other policies Gove had announced by December were that CCTV would be used in all slaughterhouses and beavers would be reintroduced into the UK.

Gove faced criticism over the appointment of Ben Goldsmith to the role of non-executive director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as Goldsmith had previously donated cash to Gove's Surrey Heath constituency.

Concerns were also raised about the selection process for the job, which was overseen by Sir Ian Cheshire, the chairman of Goldsmith's investment rigid , Menhaden Capital Management.

An important aspect of Gove's tenure was the introduction of laws concerning animal welfare.

Maximum sentences for the crime of animal cruelty increased, as did protection for animals used by Government services, such as police dogs and horses. One of the "toughest worldwide bans" on ivory trade was also introduced in

May offered Gove the post of secretary of state for exiting the European Union after Dominic Raab's resignation over the Brexit withdrawal agreement in November Gove rejected the offer after May told him that there was "no chance" of trying to renegotiate the agreement.

Gove was portrayed by actor Oliver Maltman in the HBO and Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War.

In January , May survived a vote of no confidence in her government, after a "barnstorming" speech from Gove directed towards the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. The speech, which gained significant media attention, attacked Corbyn for his foreign policy record, with Tom Rogan of the Washington Examiner depicting it as "A tour de force.

It was angry but not fanatical, passionate but not somber, and intellectual but simply put".

In March , Gove argued that "we didn't vote to leave without a deal. That wasn't the message of the campaign I helped lead. During that campaign, we said we should do a deal with the EU and be part of the network of free trade deals that covers all Europe, from Iceland to Turkey".

In April , after having a meeting with Extinction Rebellion, Gove said he agreed with the activists that there needed to be a deeper level of public understanding over climate adjust , but he declined to assert a climate emergency in the United Kingdom.

Despite Gove's position, Parliament passed a motion to declare a climate emergency.

In May , Gove introduced the Unrestrained Animals in Circuses Bill, which banned the use of untamed animals in travelling circuses in England.

Leadership election ()

On 26 May , Gove announced he would stand for the Conservative governance following May's resignation, entering the contest.

He promised to eliminate the charge for UK citizenship applications from EU nationals if elected, and to replace VAT with a "simpler sales tax". He also planned to scrap the High Speed 2 rail project and increase school funding by £1 billion.

By 5 June , Johnson became the transparent frontrunner with the bookmakers, with Gove second favourite, followed closely by Jeremy Hunt.

In June, reports emerged that Gove had taken cocaine as a news writer in his twenties.

Michael Gove - Wikipedia: Michael Andrew Gove (/ ɡ oʊ v /; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August ) is a Scottish journalist, author, and retired politician who served in various Cabinet positions under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

Gove stated that he regretted having done so, and regarded it as having been a mistake. In an article for The Times in December , Gove had argued against the legalisation of drugs and criticised members of the middle classes for their hypocrisy in doing so.^[] This was a key component of his offer to be leader.

In reaction, Craig Oliver said it would have a negative impact on his run whereas fellow candidate for leadership Dominic Raab said he "admires [Gove's] honesty".

Gove progressed following the first ballot, having received 37 votes.

He received 41 votes in the second ballot, and by the third ballot had 51 MPs backing him. The fourth ballot saw him gain 61 votes, moving him into second position. In the last ballot, he had 75 votes and was voted out – losing by only two to Hunt, the eventual runner-up.^[]

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (–)

Upon the election of Johnson as prime minister, Gove was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, legally standing for the Crown as Duke of Lancaster.

Heinz famously boasted of having 57 different varieties of products. Education Secretary Michael Gove will be topping that when the new school term begins, with different varieties of fresh schools. A veritable kaleidoscope of new state-funded schools will expose their doors for the first time next month — 93 of them part of the Government's free school programme, with the rest either university technical colleges UTCsoffering high-class vocational options for 14 to year-olds, or studio schools — smaller institutions offering a similar package and which have links to industry in order to provide their pupils with real work life. The 93 free schools, race by a mixture of instructor and parent-led groups, private sponsors and faith-based organisations, will imply that Mr Gove's pet plan more than doubles in size this autumn — there are currently 81 open throughout England.

His non-portfolio role included responsibility for no-deal Brexit preparations, overseeing constitutional affairs, maintaining the honesty of the Union and having oversight over all Cabinet Office policy. Gove was excluded from a place on the National Security Council committee as Johnson pursued a slimming down of Cabinet operations.

He became a central figure in the conduction of Operation Yellowhammer, the civil servant contingency planning for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

Writing in The Sunday Times on 28 July , Gove said that a no-deal Brexit was "a very real prospect" and one that the Government was "working on the assumption of".

He said in August that it was "wrong and sad" that the EU was "refusing to negotiate" over a recent withdrawal agreement. That month, an official Cabinet Yellowhammer document leaked, predicting that a no-deal Brexit would lead to food, medicine and petrol shortages.

Gove said the leaked dossier outlined a "worst-case scenario". Interviewed in September , Gove declined to speak whether the Government would abide by legislation designed to cease a no-deal Brexit.

In , LBC's Iain Dale placed Gove third in a list of that year's "Top Most Influential Conservatives".

During the Speaker of the House of Commons election, Gove nominated Labour MP Chris Bryant to replace John Bercow. Gove helped to prepare Johnson for the general election debates by playing the role of the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He offered to stand in for Johnson during a Channel 4 debate on environmental issues but the editor of Channel 4 News said the debate was only open to party leaders.^[] At the general election, Gove was again re-elected, seeing his majority cut to 18, and with a decreased vote divide of %.^[]

Gove won the "Minister to watch" award at the January Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards.

On 13 February , he took on additional responsibilities as Minister for the Cabinet Office, succeeding Oliver Dowden, who had been appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Tradition, Media and Sport, in Johnson's first large reshuffle of his government.

During the first COVID pandemic lockdown, Gove generated confusion after saying on ITV's Good Morning Britain that children with separated parents were not allowed to move between their parents' homes.

He later apologised and clarified that what he had said was not the case. When Johnson was self-isolating after having been tested positive for COVID, Gove stood in for Johnson briefly from 27 March at the daily briefings of the pandemic, until Gove self-isolated himself after a family member developed COVID symptoms.

In May , Gove was criticised after his wife Sarah Vine shared a bookcase picture "as a very particular treat for my trolls" which featured a book by the Holocaust denierDavid Irving, and a copy of The Bell Curve, which controversially claims that intelligence is highly heritable and that median IQ varies among races.

Another book in the photograph was The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray, which, according to The Guardian, cites Enoch Powell and argues for protecting white Christian Europe from "outsiders".

After Johnson said that the UK had ended trade talks with the EU in October , Gove said that the door was "still ajar" if the EU made changes over issues including fishing access and that "We hope the EU will change their position and we are certainly not saying if they do change their position we can't talk to them".

Gove was part of a committee of Cabinet ministers, comprising Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock, that made decisions on the COVID pandemic.

He was chair of the COVID operations subcommittee. In a COBR gathering he chaired on 24 November , he agreed, with the leaders of the UK's devolved governments, to a set of rules governing social mixing for the whole of the region over the Christmas period.

It allowed for up to three households to form a "bubble" from 23 to 27 December,^[] but was cancelled for London and South East England, while being limited to a solo day for the rest of England, after the discovery of a mutant COVID strain.

Under the terms of England's all-tier COVID restrictions in December , pubs were only legally allowed to serve alcoholic beverages with a substantial meal.

Gove initially said that this did not incorporate Scotch eggs, which he defined as a "starter" on multiple occasions (although he said it "would count as a substantial meal if there were table service"); however, he later backtracked and said: "I do recognise that it is a substantial meal."^[]

Gove was co-chair of the EU–UK Partnership Council with European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič.

On 8 December , after 10 months of talks with Šefčovič, he helped reach an consent that included post-Brexit arrangements for the Irish border. As a consequence the Government decided to abandon parts of the Internal Market Bill that could hold seen the UK break international Frost succeeded Gove as the UK chair of the Partnership Council on 1 March

In the revival of Spitting Image, Gove's puppet was given "beady eyes, large ears and bulging cheeks" and was voiced by Lewis MacLeod.

In May , Gove attended the Champions League Final in Porto with his son, supporting Chelsea; following his visit he was alerted by the NHS Test and Mark system of his potential exposure to the disease, and that he would need to self-isolate.

Rather than isolating for the normal ten-day period, Gove was able to take part in a pilot scheme designed to investigate the efficacy of testing, which required him to self-isolate for only one day and undergo testing every day for a week.^[]

In a case brought to the High Court of Justice by the Good Regulation Project in June , Gove was found to have acted unlawfully when the Government awarded a COVID contract without a tender to a polling organization owned by long-term associates of his and Dominic Cummings, then Johnson's chief adviser.

In July , Gove worked part-time in Glasgow as part of the Government strategy to strengthen the Union.^[] That month, a joint declaration on behalf of Gove and Vine said that they had agreed to separate and were in the process of finalising their divorce.

The next month, Gove was filmed dancing "merrily" at Bohemia nightclub in Aberdeen. He had allegedly tried to avoid a £5 entrance fee by stating he was the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Friends of Gove denied he had attempted to elude paying.