Thursday 7 July 2022 09:51 AM How Boris Johnson's sacking of Michael Gove is just latest twist in ... trends now
Boris Johnson's sacking of Michael Gove last night was yet another twist in the extraordinary psychodrama between the two top Tories who have lurched from being great friends to repeatedly stabbing each other 'in the front and back' in a rivalry that has lasted almost 40 years.
The Prime Minister telephoned his Levelling Up Secretary yesterday evening to tell him he was being removed from his Cabinet job for 'treachery' after Mr Gove had privately urged him quit.
Tory former minister Tim Loughton said before Mr Johnson finally caved in and agreed to resign today that Michael Gove had 'taken the PM the traditional whisky and revolver. The PM downed the whisky and turned the revolver on Gove.'
A No 10 source last night accused Mr Gove of being a 'snake', adding: 'It's not the first time he's been treacherous, appalling and disloyal. This is something he [Mr Johnson] should have done years ago.' But today Michael Gove came out on top, as Mr Johnson finally fell on his sword.
The rivalry between the two men stretches right back to their university days at Oxford, where the slightly younger Gove was described as being in awe of the current Prime Minister and one of the key members of the 'Boris cult'.
But the relationship would later turn sour when her famously torpedoed Mr Johnson's leadership bid in 2016 by withdrawing support for him at the 11th hour and running himself - reportedly having been 'appalled' by his rivals decision to play cricket and throw a boozy garden party instead of working on delivering Brexit after Vote Leave won the referendum.
Somehow they managed to get back on track and Mr Gove was offered the key Cabinet role of delivering Mr Johnson's key levelling up strategy before both men knifed each other last night.
Michael Gove and Boris Johnson sank Mr Johnson's leadership bid in 2016 by withdrawing support for him at the 11th hour
The Tory MPs were at Oxford at the same time. Mr Gove was said to be in awe of the older Boris Johnson, and a firm member of his 'cult'
Michael Gove hugs Carrie Johnson before her relationship with Boris Johnson emerged. They are on good terms
Journalist Isabel Oakeshott claims Mr Gove gave the Prime Minister until 9pm to resign - so Mr Johnson called him at 8.59pm precisely to fire him. But despite this act, Mr Gove again played a role in scuppering his frenemy's political ambitions.
Ed Vaizey, the former MP who was best man when Mr Gove married journalist Sarah Vine, said today that his friend would have stayed with Boris 'to the end' had he not been fired - calling it a bizarre footnight in the PM's demise.
And despite the rivalry, Mr Gove was on good terms with Carrie Johnson, having worked closely together when she was in charge of Tory communications and even employed her best friend Henry Newman as his most senior aide.
Insiders have said that it will be Carrie's input - much like when Denis Thatcher told his wife the game was up - that will influence how quickly Boris leaves No 10.
Mr Gove even did a rap at her 30th birthday party - that had people in fits of giggle apart from the less than impressed Mr Johnson, witnesses said.
Not long ago, he even quipped that his 2016 sabotage of Boris Johnson's Tory leadership bid had been like an 'unexploded bomb going off in my hands'.
He was speaking from a position of safety last October, while still in charge of the Prime Minister's levelling up agenda, but the joke highlighted the enduring uneasiness of the pair's relationship.
'One of the things about committing political suicide is that you always live to regret it,' he added.
Shortly before 10.30am yesterday, Michael Gove went alone to see Mr Johnson in his Downing Street study and tried to persuade him to stand down. Mr Gove warned the PM his position was 'no longer sustainable', telling him: 'The party will move to get rid of you. It is better to go on your own terms,' he urged him.
Despite his pleading, at the end of the amicable five-minute conversation, Mr Johnson told Mr Gove: 'Thank you, but I am going to fight on.'
The pair then went down the corridor to the Cabinet Room, where the Levelling Up Secretary helped Mr Johnson to prepare for Prime Minister's Questions. But the minister was noticeably absent from the frontbench as the PM faced MPs at noon.
Later the Prime Minister was questioned about his cabinet colleague's warning to him as he appeared before the Commons Liaison Committee.
Mr Johnson did not dispute that Mr Gove had told him he should resign. Asked if the story was true, he replied: 'I am here to talk about what the government is doing, I am
