He may portray himself as the candidate for change, but will his promises ever actually come about?
Michael Gove’s formally launched his campaign to become the next Prime Minister this morning. What did we learn from his speech?
- His commitment to the NHS is not as it would seem
Today, Gove pledged £100 million a week extra for the NHS by 2020 and yet he happily paraded around the country in that red bus pledging £350 million a week for the NHS.
It should be remembered all that in 2009 the Observer revealed:
“Leading Tory MPs – who include Cameron’s close ally Michael Gove – are listed alongside controversial MEP Daniel Hannan as co-authors of a book, Direct Democracy, which says the NHS “fails to meet public expectations” and is “no longer relevant in the 21st century.”
- He cannot bring the country back together
Throughout is speech today the justice secretary pledged to bring both the Conservative Party and the country back together.
This however from the person who oversaw a campaign that led to his ‘friend’ David Cameron resigning, and stabbing his other ‘friend’ Boris Johnson in the front and the back.
As Education Secretary, his tenure was marked by the divisions and anger he created among teachers.
This is not someone who can heal the very open wounds that have been created.
- He cannot be trusted
As Left Foot Forward noted yesterday Gove has, on at least eight occasions, made clear that he did not and never would want to become prime minister.
Indeed, it was noticeable how much he argued today that he had supposedly done all he could to avoid being a candidate.
One wondered what else he might be prepared to row back on?
- Where does he stand on jobs?
In his speech, Gove declared today that we need ‘to make the United Kingdom an economic powerhouse which gives good jobs, real opportunities and security at work to every citizen.’
That would sound great if it was not for his admission on Sky News during the referendum campaign that jobs could be guaranteed in the event of Brexit.
- Immigration plans will not work
Gove pledged again today to bring immigration down using an Australian-style points system.
He failed to remind the audience however that official UN figures show that immigration per head of population is higher in Australia than it is the UK.
- Where does he stand on “experts”
Launching his bid today Michael Gove went out of his way today to heap praise on and pay tribute to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.
So Carney is no longer one of the ‘experts’ Gove recently suggested were akin to the Nazis who sneered at Albert Einstein?
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor at Left Foot Forward
One Response to “Six things we learned from Michael Gove’s campaign launch”
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