‘Gove and Johnson’s letter to PM was contemptible’

It is one of the most extraordinary messages ever written to a Prime Minister, blending menace and manipulation with sycophantic praise. The authors were Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. The subject? Brexit gangland-style. The letter, which has been leaked in full to The Mail on Sunday, was written for Theresa May’s eyes only, handed to her via her trusted Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell.

Johnson and Gove have made no secret in recent months of their contempt for the Prime Minister. Yet their letter is so brimming with praise that it makes one cringe with embarrassment. Do they think so little of her that she will be taken in by their flattery?

Their letter opens: ‘First can we congratulate you on the steps you have taken to ensure that we leave the EU in a smooth and orderly fashion?’ They say, ‘as Home Secretary you achieved progress no other could’. Slurp, slurp. Not even Thatcher’s Ministers larded her so.

On one level it reads like harmless student politics – as if both men were still Oxford undergraduates playing games to try to manipulate the Oxford Union to their own ends. But can it be seen as harmless fun in the current state of British politics, in which every day seems more bizarre and dangerous for the country than the previous?

Johnson and Gove have made no secret in recent months of their contempt for the Prime Minister. Yet their letter is so brimming with praise that it makes one cringe with embarrassment

The most delicate and divisive time in our national politics for years is a very inappropriate occasion for two such senior Ministers to be playing student politics. The conventions that have made our governments so successful over two centuries include the ancient doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, which says that ultimate power in Britain lies in Parliament, in Cabinet Government and in the doctrine of an impartial Civil Service, laid down by the Northcote Trevelyan report of 1854.

This extraordinary letter, unprecedented at such a volatile moment, should cause us all concern. The sinister missive is written by two of Britain’s most senior Cabinet Ministers, for goodness sake, and it is riddled with disregard for convention and the people.

Their contempt for Mrs May is seen in their opening statement – ‘your approach is governed by sensible pragmatism’. It is for the Prime Minister to govern in her own way. Their commentary and tone in the whole letter drips with a barely concealed patronising sexism.

It undermines Chancellor Philip Hammond, a more senior figure in Government than either letter-writer. Gove has been positioning himself as his successor, a job he might have received one day had he shown more of the qualities needed.

Hammond is in the assassins’ minds when they write, ‘we are profoundly worried that in some parts of Government the current preparations are not proceeding with anything like sufficient energy’. They can’t stomach Hammond’s refusal to make proper plans in next week’s Budget for a hard Brexit.

The letter also goes against the Cabinet and the conventions of Cabinet government and, specifically for David Davis, Secretary for Exiting the European Union, it has gone brazenly behind his back. Cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which holds all Ministers together in a position of trust to agreed policy lines. The doctrine is ignored at peril. They display contempt for the Civil Service which has served this country loyally for many years, and whose impartiality and quality is the envy of the rest of the democratic world.

‘The Whitehall machine left to its own devices is not configured’, they write, to achieve the kind of ‘hard Brexit’ they wish to see. Both men have a history of poor relations with officials.

Their commentary and tone in the whole letter drips with a barely concealed patronising sexism

In David Cameron’s Government, Gove left his excellent work as Education Secretary incomplete, while one of his aides was said to bully officials.

Johnson is more poorly regarded by the Foreign Office than any holder of the office since Labour’s George Brown in the 1960s, though Brown’s drinking and erratic behaviour was forgiven by many diplomats who admired him as a man.

The solution that Gove and Johnson propose to ram through their vision is the creation of a ‘special task force’ at No 10 to oversee the implementation of Brexit, whose job would be to bypass Cabinet and take the key decisions. This smacks of No 10 in the late 1930s, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain brought in an aide, Horace Wilson, to implement his own niche policy towards Europe. This is not the way consensus is built, now as then.

Government is not easy at the best of times, but one thing we know is that successful Ministers in decades past have worked well with their officials and within the norms of Cabinet government. It is the unsuccessful Minister who blames their officials when things go wrong. Gove and Johnson share a background in journalism. Neither of them is a proven manager. Both are prone to blame others. The final proof is the whole approach of their letter, which is unbelievably naive. Both men appear to be intelligent, but neither is wise. The wise learn from their mistakes.

The subject? Brexit gangland-style. The letter, which has been leaked in full to The Mail on Sunday, was written for Theresa May’s eyes only, handed to her via her trusted Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell

The subject? Brexit gangland-style. The letter, which has been leaked in full to The Mail on Sunday, was written for Theresa May’s eyes only, handed to her via her trusted Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell

Johnson is more poorly regarded by the Foreign Office than any holder of the office since Labour’s George Brown in the 1960s

Johnson is more poorly regarded by the Foreign Office than any holder of the office since Labour’s George Brown in the 1960s

If ever there was a time in British politics for calm and responsible governing, this is it. MPs are deeply divided over Brexit. Trashing all sides is folly. The best people on all sides of politics are trying to strike a reasonable and inclusive tone and to build trust, which was so badly shattered first by the expenses scandal and more recently by the sex shenanigans saga. The Prime Minister might well decide the time has come to move Johnson, which will send a powerful signal that she’s not prepared to tolerate people who go behind the backs of others. The party is full of able and loyal lieutenants ripe for promotion.

Johnson and Gove’s actions last year, in coming out for Brexit to the surprise of David Cameron, tipped the delicately balanced scales in favour of Britain leaving the EU. They are now hell-bent on achieving a hard Brexit. Johnson stabbed Cameron in the back, then Gove stabbed Johnson in the back later that year. Now both are trying to stab May in the back.

If Britain leaves the EU in a precipitate manner and it proves to be a big success, statues to those men may yet be erected in Parliament Square, and all will be forgiven.

If not, these two back-stabbers may be lucky not to find themselves as rivals for Guy Fawkes on top of bonfires as the men who trashed our country and its traditions – without even having the decency or honesty to inform their fellow Ministers what they were up to.

  • Sir Anthony Seldon is vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham and author of The Cabinet Office, a centenary history.

 

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