Michael Gove has admitted there was “moral cowardice” in the Leave campaign after failing to tell then-prime minister David Cameron about his prominent role in the campaign.
The step-up secretary said he was persuaded to take on the bigger job by Brexit campaign coordinator Dominic Cummings, a former aide to Boris Johnson.
He made the comments to former chancellor George Osborne on the Politics Money podcast, which is also hosted by former Labor shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
Osborne, a staunch Remainer, said Gove had promised Lord Cameron he would not play a “significant role” in the campaign, but ended up becoming one of the most high-profile members of the Leave campaign.
The former prime minister asked Mr Gove: “Did you cheat on David? He did feel betrayed at the time.”
Gove denied he had been betrayed by Lord Cameron but added: “As I mentioned, I do think I could have spoken out earlier.
“I think this is an example of cowardice on the one hand and moral cowardice on the other hand, and I recognize that politically maybe there is a sense that maybe something will come up that maybe this moment won’t be when we have to do Come when the decision is made.
“But I think it’s entirely fair to say that David should have expected that I would come clean sooner.”
Gove said he had gone “further” in the campaign than he thought as he ended up appearing on TV debates and political shows as the face of the Brexit campaign.
Bowles asked whether the influence of Cummings, the promotion secretary, was one of the reasons he was more involved in the Brexit campaign than he thought at the start.
Mr Gove replied: “Yes. Again, one of the arguments was “If you don’t do this, they’ll put Farage in,” before waving his arm and pointing to everyone in the office, including those who had been and The guy I worked with. Over the years, he kept saying: ‘You can’t let these guys down’.”
He added that unlike Mr Osborne who stayed up late to watch the referendum result, he only found out the vote to leave had been won when his wife woke him up the next morning.
“I didn’t wake anyone up, I was just lying awake on the couch,” he said. “Not only did I think, and still do, that this was a disaster for my country, I just knew that it was an absolute disaster for my career and that it was basically the end of my political career. It was absolutely The most painful day of my life in politics — in any part of my career.”
Mr Cameron and Mr Gove were once close friends, but they fell out in 2016 as Mr Gove actively led the campaign against him from the EU.
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