競争相手s to the death: Bombshell biography of Michael Gove 明らかにする／漏らすs the truth about his bitter 戦う／戦いs with Boris Johnson, why he had to （権力などを）行使する the knife - and the dark secrets that have come 支援する to haunt him

• e-mail

Boris Johnson had been worried Michael Gove might have his 注目する，もくろむs on （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing him to the 職業 of 総理大臣 in the weeks 主要な up to the EU 国民投票 in June 2016 ― and not without 推論する／理由.

‘I’m pretty 確かな I’m going to 支援する you, but I just need to think about this over the next 24 hours,’ said Gove.

On Saturday, June 25, two days after the 国民投票, Gove told Johnson he would 支援する him; he was definitely not standing himself. But over the course of the next few days he changed his mind.

All the 質s Johnson seemed to have 可決する・採択するd, or at least done a good impression of understanding the importance of, during the 国民投票 （選挙などの）運動をする had 完全に disappeared.Message discipline, organisation, taking advice, working to 最終期限s . . .

Gove thought 支援する to his experiences working closely with a 首相. He remembered seeing the 安全 services 急ぐing in, （疑いを）晴らすing the room, and telling David Cameron he had to make an instant 決定／判定勝ち（する） on whether to give the go-ahead to have someone killed.

Boris Johnson had been worried Michael Gove might have his 注目する，もくろむs on （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing him to the 職業 of 総理大臣 in the weeks 主要な up to the EU 国民投票 in June 2016

Could Johnson 扱う that level of 圧力 and 責任／義務? Gove （機の）カム to the 結論 Johnson should not be 総理大臣. He decided he would stand against him. In the run-up to the 開始する，打ち上げる of his （選挙などの）運動をする, Gove was put through his paces by his team as they tried to 心配する what questions he would 直面する from the マスコミ. During this 開会／開廷／会期 Gove made a startling admission.

によれば someone with intimate knowledge of the event, Gove was asked if he had ever taken 麻薬s. ‘Yes, コカイン,’ he replied.

He was 堅固に 教えるd not to give that answer in public, and told instead to 落ちる 支援する on the words Cameron had used when he was running for leader, すなわち that 政治家，政治屋s are する権利を与えるd to a 私的な life before entering politics.

There had long been rumours in Westminster that Gove had taken the 麻薬 while working at The Times. In his 調書をとる／予約する Dirty Politics, Dirty Money, Lord Ashcroft made a （人命などを）奪う，主張する that Tom Baldwin, one of Gove’s Times 同僚s, was a 正規の／正選手 使用者 of コカイン. Baldwin 辞退するd to 答える／応じる to the （人命などを）奪う，主張する he had taken 麻薬s with Gove.

The fact Gove ― who at the time was 司法（官） 長官 and Lord （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 ― was seemingly 用意が出来ている to go public with this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） would have been the first time a 候補者 for the highest office in the land had 認める taking a Class A 麻薬.

On Saturday, June 25, two days after the 国民投票, Gove told Johnson he would 支援する him (pictured: A young Michael Gove, left, and Boris Johnson, 権利)

After all, Gove was a member of Cameron’s （選挙などの）運動をする team for the leadership in 2005 when the 未来 PM was asked at a fringe 会合 at the party 会議／協議会, whether he had taken 麻薬s at university.

‘I had a normal un iversity experience,’ Cameron replied, 追加するing: ‘There were things that I did then that I don’t think that I should talk about now I’m a 政治家，政治屋.’

During a BBC TV Question Time show, an audience member 圧力（をかける）d Cameron: ‘Do you believe in today’s Britain that 麻薬-taking at university is all part of an ordinary university experience?’ Cameron replied that 政治家，政治屋s deserve a 私的な life before entering politics, and won a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of 賞賛.

(Cameron went on to 達成する a （疑いを）晴らす victory over David Davis.)

Hours after Gove 発表するd he was standing in 2016, Johnson withdrew from the contest, 説 Gove’s challenge made it impossible for him to 勝利，勝つ.

At the first hustings event Gove を締めるd himself for a rough ride. Johnson 支持者s made no secret of their feelings about the person who had brought 負かす／撃墜する the man they believed should be king.

MP Jake Berry tweeted: ‘There is a very 深い 炭坑，オーケストラ席 reserved in Hell for such as he. #Gove.’

He 生き残るd the first 投票（する）, but withdrew after 存在 soundly beaten by Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May in the next 一連の会議、交渉／完成する.

In a two-week period, Gove had helped bring about the 辞職 of David Cameron (by 支援 Leave), 妨害するd Johnson’s ambitions to be 総理大臣 and 燃やすd the 評判 he had as someone to be 信用d.

Leadsom subsequently やめる the race and May became PM. She 召喚するd Gove to No 10 and told him he would not be in her 閣僚. ‘One of the things that’s very important is 忠義,’ she said, ‘and after the past few weeks I’ve been speaking to people in the party . . . I wouldn’t say that you could never come 支援する, but you need to take a period on the backbenches ーするために 論証する 忠義.’

Gove later 認める his leadership 企て，努力，提案 w as a mistake. And May had been 権利 to 解雇する／砲火／射撃 him. ‘If I’d been in her shoes I would have 解雇（する）d me, too,’ he said ruefully.

Yet earlier this year Gove, by now 環境 長官, had decided to start 実験（する）ing the water to see if he should be 準備するing a 企て，努力，提案 to take over as leader when May finally 放棄するd office.

Pictured: Michael Gove and Boris Johnson speak at a Leave event in October 2016

財務省 大臣 Mel Stride organised dinners with MPs to find out what they would be looking for from the next party leader ― ーに関して／ーの点でs of style and 実体.

Stride created a WhatsApp group called 深い Blue, a 指名する chosen to 反映する the 穏健な 権利 協議事項. MPs were 招待するd to dinners with Stride, 含むing some at his townhouse in Chelsea.

As 怒り／怒る over May’s 交渉s with 労働 強めるd throughout April, the dinners became a more overt 会議 for 促進するing Gove, and the man himself began …に出席するing. Stride’s wife would then serve a home-cooked meal which created a relaxed atmo sphere. The conversation would 結局 switch to the 明言する／公表する of the party, before, 必然的に turning to the race to 後継する May.

Gove would then 始める，決める out his pitch, playing up his experience running three 政府 departments, （人命などを）奪う，主張するing it was 証拠 he could bring fresh ideas.

One MP says that at the dinner they …に出席するd ― three days before May 発表するd she was 辞職するing ― Gove put 今後d two 明確な／細部 ideas: extra money for 最初の／主要な schools, and the 創造 of a new 支店 of the police 軍隊 to 取引，協定 純粋に with cyber 罪，犯罪.

‘Gove said the normal police are 圧倒するd by cyber 罪，犯罪, so he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to create a 見解／翻訳／版 of the British 輸送（する） Police but just for internet-based 罪，犯罪.’

Not everyone at the dinner was a Gove 支持者. One asked bluntly: ‘How can we 信用 you after you stabbed Boris in the 支援する?’

‘I don’t see it as stabbing people in the 支援する, I was trying to do the public a service,’ replied Gove. Another 質問者 had an 平等に forthright question: ‘Aren’t you a bit 有毒な with the public? Don’t people see you as a speccy git?’

Gove laughed, and 定評のある that while he was ‘not the most photogenic’, he had been the 直面する of the 投票（する） Leave （選挙などの）運動をする in the EU 国民投票 which won 17.4 million 投票（する）s. It wasn’t just dinners where Gove would 持つ／拘留する 法廷，裁判所. At the beginning of May 2018, Stride organised a question-and-answer 開会／開廷／会期 with Gove at The Surprise pub in Chelsea.

Some 46 MPs turned up. Gove talked up his years of 政府 experience and 記録，記録的な／記録する for competency. The contrast with Dominic Raab, who had served in the 閣僚 for just four months, and Johnson, who made 非常に／多数の gaffes as Foreign 長官, was （疑いを）晴らす.

The 競争 between the two men most likely to 結局最後にはーなる fighting for the Tory 栄冠を与える stretches 権利 支援する to their university days.

From the moment Gove arrived at Oxford University, he had 始める，決める his sights on becoming 大統領 of the Oxford Union. In a 1987 collection of essays する権利を与えるd ‘The Oxford Myth’, one former 大統領，／社長 advised others how to 上がる to the 地位，任命する. A 候補者 needs ‘a disciplined and deluded collection of stooges’ who will 説得する people in their 各々の colleges to 支援する you, the 評論家 公式文書，認めるd. Collecting and 動機づけるing these ‘stooges’ is a 技術 in itself.

The 大統領の 候補者 must 納得させる the stooge that there is something in it for them; that by so nakedly 大（公）使館員ing themselves to his or her particular bandwagon the fruits of success will somehow trickle 負かす／撃墜する.

Yet, as the author of the essay pointedly 明らかにする／漏らすd: ‘The 悲劇 of the stooge is that even if he thinks this through, he wants so much to believe that his 関係 with the 候補者 is special that he shuts out the truth. The terrible art of the 候補者 is to coddle the self-deception of the stooge.’

In his first year at Oxford, Gove willingly became a ‘stooge’. Indeed, to the student who wrote those very words: Boris Johnson.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in New York on June 19, 1964 ― three years before Gove entered the world in Scotland.

By the time Gove arrived at Oxford, Johnson was one of the big 人物／姿／数字s on campus. His shock of blond hair, his larger-than-life persona, meant he was someone everybody knew.

Johnson 入会させるd in 1983 to read Classics at Balliol College and had his sights 始める，決める on the Union 大統領／総裁などの地位 in much the same way as Gove would in 未来 years. He failed in his first 試みる／企てる to get elected in 1984/85, but had another 割れ目 at it a year later.

This time, Johnson hatched a 計画（する） to reach out to more of the 選挙民 than his Old Etonian demeanour had 以前 won over. He decided to mask his natural leanings by 可決する・採択するing the Social Democratic Party, the new political movement 開始する，打ち上げるd in 1981.

With the Tory wolf now dressed in SDP 着せる／賦与するing, Johnson needed a flock of stooges to spread his many messages across campus.

Gove was a willing member of the ‘Boris 教団’, he later remembered, 供給するing a vivid description of his first 遭遇（する） with the man: ‘It was in the Union 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業. He was a striking 人物／姿／数字 with sheepdog hair and penny loafers, standing in a 独特の 提起する／ポーズをとる with his 手渡すs in his trouser pockets and his 長，率いる bent 今後.

‘He seemed like a kindly, Ox ford character, but he was really like a 広大な／多数の／重要な basking shark waiting for freshers to swim に向かって him.’

Gove was happy to be in the shark’s ギャング（団）, and although he was taken with Johnson’s 審議ing 技術s, the canny fresher knew that helping a Balliol man 安全な・保証する the 大統領／総裁などの地位 was a useful political 投資:

‘The real 推論する／理由 why I became a stooge in the Boris machine was that Oxford politics was essentially a 事柄 of the college that you 設立する yourself in. I was in Lady Margaret Hall, which was a small 州 of Balliol, aping the manners of our betters. 予定するs need balance, and an LMH debater fitted into the balance.’

Not for the last time, a Johnson-前線d （選挙などの）運動をする with Gove 事実上の／代理 as willing stooge 証明するd popular with the 投票者s, and the 未来 London 市長 was elected to serve as Union 大統領，／社長 in the final 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 of the 1985/86 year.

Gove’s enthusiastic support of Johnson, and his own 業績／成果s in union 審議s, helped his notoriety grow on campus. He was anointed ‘Pushy Fresher of the Year’ by the Oxford student paper Cherwell, but it wasn’t all bad 圧力（をかける）, as the same 出版（物） also dubbed him ‘the best debater in the Union’.

His speeches at the union were 十分な of Gove’s trademark self-deprecation and wit, and it was there that he began to develop and toy with the notion that, far from 存在 an 可決する・採択するd son of an Aberdeen fisherman, he was 現実に part of the Scottish aristocracy.

Gove, along with his school friend Duncan Gray, would don a kilt when taking part in 審議s, and a 正規の／正選手 差し控える would be for Gove to apologise for his dishevelled 外見, 説 that his Filipino manservant Pepe was on holiday so he had had to dress himself.

にもかかわらず the joke, fellow student Philip Hensher does not believe Gove was trying to mask his true background. ‘That was ありふれた at the time: people got rid of their accent but he never did,’ says Hensher. ‘Michael often talked about his parents.’

As we’ll see on Monday, there was much more to his parents’ story than he ever realised.