Michael Gove has announced he will back Rishi Sunak to be the next Conservative Party leader. The former levelling-up secretary did not think rival Liz Truss’s “prospectus was the right answer”, and added he did not expect to return to frontbench politics. A number of cabinet members have publicly backed Ms Truss, who is also the bookmakers’ favourite. It comes as Mr Sunak unveils plans he said would help British motorists.
The former chancellor said he would ban new smart motorways, clamp down on rogue parking fines and review some of the neighbourhoods that have been designated as “low traffic areas” in recent years. He indicated that he planned to be a prime minister who would tackle what he called a “war on motorists”. He pledged to introduce a transition to electric vehicles without punishing drivers, while also delivering a “rural rollout action plan” to ensure countryside communities were not left behind.
Mr Gove backed Kemi Badenoch earlier in the contest but has now said he is in favour of Mr Sunak, as Ms Truss appeared to be taking a “holiday from reality” with her plans to cut tax during the cost-of-living crisis. He missed out in his own leadership bids in 2016 and 2019 and was most recently sacked as Levelling Up Secretary after publicly telling Mr Johnson to quit as prime minister ahead of his ultimate resignation.
Mr Gove has now launched a defence of Mr Sunak, saying the tax hikes he brought in as chancellor were “a consequence of Covid, not Rishi’s inner preferences”. He wrote in the Times: “I know what the job requires. And Rishi has it.”
He suggested Ms Truss would put “the stock options of FTSE 100 executives” before the nation’s poorest people and attacked her plan to immediately reverse the national insurance hike. He wrote: “And here I am deeply concerned that the framing of the leadership debate by many has been a holiday from reality. The answer to the cost-of-living crisis cannot be simply to reject further ‘handouts’ and cut tax.”
Mr Gove said he does not expect to return to frontbench politics, saying: “I do not expect to be in government again. But it was the privilege of my life to spend 11 years in the cabinet under three prime ministers.” The Sunak campaign welcomed his backing, with a spokeswoman saying: “Delighted to have the support of a party and Cabinet veteran who has intellectual heft and shown the radical reforming zeal in every job he has had, that we now so desperately need.” Mr Sunak’s announcement of his motoring policy saw him label smart motorways “unsafe” as he pledged to stop any new ones being built.
The two candidates appeared at the hustings – answering questions in front of party members, who will choose the next leader, in Manchester on Friday evening. Ms Truss spoke about her plan to lift the ban on new grammar schools, saying she wants everyone “right across the country” to have the choice to enlist their children at one
She went on to target the Mayor of Greater Manchester as she called Andy Burnham the “miserabilist mayor… who doesn’t want opportunities” for people in the city. She told the crowd at the Manchester Central Convention Complex: “He doesn’t want opportunities for people in this city and he has to be defeated.” Meanwhile, Mr Sunak used the event to share his plans on rolling out private-sector style “surgical hubs” “across the country” in the NHS. Taking a swipe at the UK’s foreign policy, he went on to say: “We’ve got to toughen up our foreign policy. At the moment we have a situation, I found bonkers, we will go to a country, and we’ll talk to them about a trade deal we want to do with them, but also potentially be giving them actual foreign aid. “But at the same time we don’t say to them ‘hang on, you need to take back your failed asylum seekers, that’s clearly wrong.”
