As he demonstrated on The Andrew Marr Show this morning, Michael Gove, a former Times journalist, has lost none of his talent for generating headlines. In the course of 10 minutes, he suggested that a Lib Dem leadership plot was the reason Nick Clegg was blocking plans to relax childcare ratios, confirmed that he would vote “no” if an EU referendum was held today and said that he would abstain when the Commons votes on a Tory amendment criticising the absence of a referendum bill from the Queen’s Speech.
First, then, on Clegg and childcare. Gove suggested that his opposition to Liz Truss’s plan was almost entirely due to the attempt by Vince Cable’s ally Lord Oakeshott to oust him as leader. He said:
I don’t think we can understand Nick Clegg’s position without also appreciating the position that he’s in because of internal Lib Dem politics…there’s a campaign at the moment being led by Matthew Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat in the Lords, to try to destabilise Nick Clegg because Matthew Oakeshott wants Vince Cable to succeed him
It’s hardly a secret that Oakeshott wants Cable installed as Lib Dem leader but no Conservative cabinet minister has ever referred explicitly to this fact. Clegg, who outlined in detail his concerns over the childcare plans on his LBC show earlier this week, is likely to be furious at the suggestion that his position is motivated by politics, not principle.
But the mischievous Gove, artfully seeking to turn the conversation on to Lib Dem divisions, went on:
Nick, understandably, needs to show Lib Dems that he’s fighting hard…you only need to look at the newspapers today to see that Lord Oakeshott is on maneouvres, he’s trying to promote Vince. It’s understandable that within the Lib Dems these things go on. Nick has to show a bit of leg, as it were, on these issues.
On Europe, asked if he would vote to leave the EU if a referendum was held today (as the Mail on Sunday reported last year), Gove confirmed for the first time that he would. He told James Lansdale:
Yes [I would vote to leave the EU], I’m not happy with our position in the European Union
After Nigel Lawson’s intervention earlier this week, Gove’s words represent another significant escalation of tensions over this issue. Tim Montgomerie lists Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers, Chris Grayling, Justine Greening, Philip Hammond, Oliver Letwin and Francis Maude as other “definite or probable EU Outers”. All of these ministers (and others) will now come under pressure to say whether they, like Gove, would also vote “no” in a referendum today.
Gove added that while there would be “certain advantages” to being outside the EU (another significant admission), “the best deal” would be for Britain to successfully renegotiate its membership. David Cameron’s hope is that the plausible threat of withdrawal will make it easier to achieve that.
Update: Here’s how Oakeshott has responded to Gove.
Gove#Marr tries diversion from Cons Europe split with old news-I prefer Cable to Clegg,shock!But there’s no plot-members decide who leads us
— matthew oakeshott (@oakeshottm) May 12, 2013
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