Michael Gove says it was ‘mistake’ to say Boris Johnson would not be capable PM

Michael Gove said he made a “mistake” by ruining Boris Johnson’s bid to become Conservative party leader in 2016 – saying he remained an “enthusiastic” supporter of the prime minister.

The cabinet minister said he regretted betraying his former Vote Leave ally and running for the Tory leadership when David Cameron resigned in the wake of the Brexit referendum.

Mr Gove said in 2016 that he had decided that Mr Johnson was “not capable of uniting that team and leading the party and the country”.

Asked on Thursday if he backed the under-pressure prime minister, the levelling up minister told Sky News: “Enthusiastically – yes.”

Reminded he had not always backed Mr Johnson to be PM, he said: “I made a mistake in 2016 – a misjudgement. If you’ve been in politics for a little while as I have, there are always mistakes.”

He added: “I think the prime minister is doing a good job. I’ve been privileged to work alongside him when he made the Brexit entanglement, the imbroglio was broken.”

Asked if he would consider running against Mr Johnson again for the Tory leadership, he replied: “Oh God no.”

Mr Gove also defended his decision not to appear on the government frontbench at PMQs on Wednesday – saying he was working on his levelling up and regeneration bill speech.

Told on LBC that cabinet colleagues Nadhim Zahawi and Priti Patel would have also been busy, but turned up to support the PM, Mr Gove said: “The Great Zahawi and the Pritster are a far more decorative addition to the front bench than my ugly mug.”

Mr Gove and Mr Johnson are setting out plans for lower-paid workers to be able to use housing benefits to buy their homes, and an extension of the right to buy for housing association tenants.

According to The Times, the government wants tenants the ability to buy for housing association properties at discounts of up to 70 per cent – though it is likely to be limited to a series of pilots for now, without additional government funding.

But Mr Gove rejected the figure – and admitted that there would be a cap on the number of housing association tenants who will be able to benefit from right to buy extension.

He also confirmed that there was no new money committed for the scheme, telling Sky News: “It will come from the overall parcel, the overall envelope of government spending. We expect that we will cap the number who will be able to benefit from this initially, and then it will grow over time.”

Asked what the discount would be, Mr Gove told LBC: “It will depend how long you have been in the home. I don’t think we’ll be offering 70 per cent discounts for our housing association right to buy … We’re not proposing to offer discounts at that scale.”

Mr Gove promised that the government would commit to replace social homes sold off “like for like” – but Labour and housing charities have pointed to the huge cost of building new homes sold off at a discount.

Conceding large sums of money would be needed, the levelling up secretary said “we want to be able to have the resources to fund a programme of this kind”, adding that the government would have to make housing associations’ “balance sheets are robust”.

Shadow cabinet minister Lisa Nandy has said the latest housing plans will “make the housing crisis worse”, adding: “We should be taking more action to increase the supply of affordable homes.”

She added: “By their own reckoning, this will help a few thousand families a year. For those families that will be very welcome, but if it makes the housing crisis worse for everybody else, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t come forward with a proper plan that actually starts to increase the supply of affordable housing.”

Shelter’s chief executive Dame Polly Neate said the “hare-brained idea” was “the opposite of what the country needs”, warning: “There could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes.”