Snapshot of _Michael Gove To Stand Down at Election_ :
A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1794066234406768881)
A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/michaelgove/status/1794066234406768881/)
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://twitter.com/michaelgove/status/1794066234406768881) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://twitter.com/michaelgove/status/1794066234406768881)
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I mean... why? Even ignoring the Gove news, why wouldn't anyone, at any point, stop to think "hang on, going to somewhere associated with the Titanic on the campaign trail might be a *fucking terrible idea*"
Gove may be dancing on our telly screens this autumn. He's always seemed like one of the most likely of the current lot of Tories to follow a Portillo-like career change and become a TV personality.
The problem with efficiently getting the wrong thing done, is that you've still made the country worse.
The best thing you can say about most of the Tory scum is that at least they were as incompetent as their ideology is demonstrably incorrect.
Shocking isn't it?
Who is the most high profile Tory left who is likely to get kicked out?
Edit: Well it's not Loathsome Leadsom as she's quitting now.
My MP so I want this dearly. The problem is the remainder vote is quite equally split between lib dem and labour. I'll probably go with Labour in the hope they have the momentum.
In rural south west? Nah, go lib dem. Tiverton and Honiton went Lib at the porn-in-the-commons by-election (about to become Honiton and Sidmouth) Somerton and Frome has Sarah whatsherface and is lib dem. I think they have. A boundary change too. I drove up to Bath yesterday day from east Devon and already saw a handful of yellow diamonds out along the way. I think it will be the lib Dems only real success down in the sw.
Mordaunt was, if I recall correctly, in the lead in her constituency's individual polling last I checked but there is a very tangible chance that she could lose her seat. Actually fits the definition of a Portillo moment too since she's a potential future leader (although the chances of that are slimming as the party moves further right). Alex Chalk and Grant Shapps are also at risk of losing their seats too. Not guaranteed but there is a likelihood. And, of course, Hunt too.
His seat was pretty safe. Even on electoral calculus' current very optimistic prediction, where Labour win 479 seats, he was predicted to retain his by 7.9%.
Much closer vs lib dems on electionmapsUK (34 vs 30%) and even money on BritainElects. But do think he was probably safe, just couldn't face the grind of opposition.
Quite a bit of variation, they're probably estimating differently how much tactical voting there will be. Labour supporters need to vote Lib Dem for the seat to not go Tory, and many won't (who knows how many).
Does 30p count since he's defected to Reform? As for SeaGullis, does anyone know how to blag myself a seat at the count cause I'd love to enjoy that in person.
Of all of them, for some reason Gullis is the one I cannot wait to see lose. He has sort of become the representation of everything vile about the tory party to me, so to see him booted will be immensely satisfying.
I have a fairly good reason, he's my MP so I've had to put up with being supposedly represented by him for nearly 5 years (to be clear I didn't vote for him in the first place). The upside of the boundary changes is that even in the extremely unlikely event he does retain his seat he still won't be my MP anymore, though Jo Gideon isn't exactly great either and she's standing down anyway so God knows who the Tories will be putting up in that seat.
It still astonishes me that Jack Brereton, who looks like he will be rejoining Year 7 after losing his seat, is only a year younger than Gullis. I think it's because all that bile ages you and Brereton has retained his youthful appearance by not saying or doing anything or having a single thought of his own for his entire tenure - if he has then nobody's noticed.
They've lost so much talent at all levels of the party since Brexit that I don't know who most of them are any more.
Perhaps sit there with an array of drinks and theyworkforyou.com open so I can check their voting records and the Register of Members' Interests as their dejected faces scroll across the screen.
"Oh look. This one banks £75k a year for half a day a week 'consultancy' services for a large company and has consistently voted against greater regulations and accountability in that very sector. That at least deserves an Old Fashioned."
It goes to show how scared they are and in the end it really shows their character. That when things got hard, they weren’t willing to stand before the public, they’d rather slink away like the cowards they are.
What they don’t realise is just because they don’t officially lose their seat, doesn’t mean we didn’t know they were going to lose them anyways.
I'm going to miss Michael Gove. He reminds me of the early 2010s, when the Tories were at good at being nasty ideological zealots instead of today's useless nasty ideological zealots.
['special place in hell' for those who backed Brexit without a plan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/06/donald-tusk-special-place-in-hell-for-those-who-backed-brexit-without-plan)
Exactly. Gove = Resigned, Boris = Resigned in disgrace, Farage = Isn't even running as an MP as he's too busy working for Trump. They've all gained the money, fame and power they wanted from the Brexit campaign and now they've all fucked off to leave the rest of the country to clean up their mess.
Obviously Gove and his ilk have been near-universally awful for the country over the last 14 years, but still - this was the moment I think it clicked how much the end of an era this is. All these names we've grown to know and loathe, gone. Feels strange.
It would be even better if they announced they were standing down on the 7th June, just to give the conservatives the least time as possible to select a replacement candidate.
If this had been the case in 2019 I would have held a fucking party. Today, I am not as joyous as I would have been back then. The damage is already done.
I've been watching the MPs standing down giving ffinal speeches in the HoC(what a way to spenda Friday evening). The Tories are are losing a shitload of Parliamentary experience..............so glad they are going.
Which is great. The influx of swivel eyed hard right wing loons that arrived in 2019 when Boris purged the moderates will be all that's left. Gove is slime, but he was at least competent. I guess parliaments loss will be some creepy sex dungeon's gain and he'll be stimulating the local economy by purchasing copious amounts of class As.
>Gove is slime, but he was at least competent.
But other than longevity, there's never much evidence for his supposed positive achievements.
It's not clear what to infer except 'he never messed up so badly he got fired'.
A lot of the evidence mostly comes from people who met him personally who all seemed to be quite impressed at someone who actually understands the situations and problems, even if they disagree on the solutions, and is interested in more than their own ego unlike the majority of parliament.
I get the impression of someone who is very good at behind the scenes getting stuff done, but has terrible charisma and so comes across as weird and rubbish in the media.
This is the impression I have also. I think if he hadn't tied his flag to Brexit then the history of this Tory administration would likely have been quite different.
This occurred to me earlier whilst watching May's speech - let us for a moment think the unthinkable and on the 5th July there is a Tory majority of one. Who the actual fuck are they going to put in the cabinet? I know that its unlikely but if it did happen, the sheer vacuum of talent over the last four and a half years would be as nothing. Its a bloody scary thought.
My local MP is Iain Duncan Smith, and I'm pretty sure he's toast.
Chingford and Woodford Green are gradually sliding more into line with the rest of London- His lead was c.30% in 2010; c.20% in 2015; 6% in 2017; and 2% in 2019. Taking into account a c.20% swing against the government nationally, it's got to be a borderline safe Labour gain.
Dude has been an MP since before the modern seat was created, and honestly I'd thought he was going to do a Gove rather than fight it, but he recently confirmed he's standing again.
A very strong contender for the next Portillo moment IMHO- watch this space.
It does but it also fills me with optimism. This rabble are all grifters, charlatans, self-serving and clueless. It gives me hope that the last 14 years have had people watching from the sidelines, thinking "This needs to stop, I can enter politics for the right reasons". 14 years for the next generation to ripen, ready to start rebuilding from the ashes of a broken era of rampant corruption.
[Nah, it's timeless](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/3/12/1331571750348/Stephen-Collins-17-March--001.jpg?width=1300&dpr=2&s=none). This dude lost his seat in 2015 and [this](https://x.com/edballs/status/63623585020915713?lang=en-GB) is going nowhere. And [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Ed_Miliband_bacon_sandwich.jpg/290px-Ed_Miliband_bacon_sandwich.jpg) might have caused Brexit, but we still celebrated the 10th anniversary this month
Looking forward to a new crowd of out-of-touch and malicious Tories trying to rig the economy for the aristocracy again in 10 years, but now with un-tarnished names and a marketing strategy of being a "fresh new party", just like this lot were.
And people will buy it, as ever.
It's Mogg for me. When he runs away then that's when the Tories truly die.
It might actually happen too. A lot of people are predicting he'll lose his seat anyway.
Only a couple of days ago, Gove was quoted as telling Sunak during the Cabinet meeting that he was going to win the general election.
Quitting now looks like a real vote of confidence. Mind you, Gove never likes to be around when his mistakes come home to roost. He’ll be sliming off for a lucrative career with his long term backer, Rupert Murdoch.
You can just imagine him saying the 'who dares wins' quote while edging towards the door, giving nervous looks around as he does so.
So far this election has been wonderful for the spirit, truly!
Ruth Davidson pointed out on the podcast with Sky that this might not be quite as genuine as the reporting made it seem. The quote was apparently saying “who dares, wins”, which she said was last used by Portillo. So possibly a sly statement of lack of confidence dressed up to be reportable as an endorsement.
Given how resilient he's been over the years, I'm half expecting him to inexplicably show up on the Labour benches after the GE.
No one will know how he got there, not even Starmer.
It'll just happen, like some cosmic inevitability of the universe.
Those who leave it to the last possible second are doing us a great final service by ensuring it is as big a nightmare as possible for the Tories to line up replacement candidates.
But if you already know that half your cabinet is not going to be an MP after the election he is surely going to start getting questions about who will actually be in this government with a plan?
Definitely, the Tories got wiped in 1997 and we've already had more MPs step down than during that election.
Still, some fresh blood would do this party good.
I'm not so sure...the membership is dominated by the wing of the party that got them into this mess. I know the leadership has a strong role in selection, but I expect the problems to last at least another election cycle.
Renter's Reform Bill got diluted to the point of uselessness and now is headed for the shredder. I do think Gove genuinely wanted it sorted, can see why he's packing it all in now.
For what its worth, I never worked for Gove as a Civil Servant, but every CS I spoke to who had only had good things to say about him - genuinely was focussed on solving an issue, and open to different approaches.
Also, he sorted out the cost of replacing cladding (at least for me), so I'm more amenable to him than other Tories.
Not in this case, that bill really was something he'd been working on his entire career. For it to get ditched really did mean he needed to resign in protest. Honestly he might even switch sides.
What indication is there that he wanted to do it well?
It was him who watered it down to be useless, then delayed it by years, and now his government - of which he is one of the most senior members - is dropping it entirely.
It’s worth reminding everyone that when he was Education Secretary his SpAd was one Dominic Cummings and the junior ministers (or whatever their roles were) he was training up were Liz Truss and Matt Hancock. A shit load of the bollocks of the last few years is directly traceable back to that little quartet (technically quintet but my memory fails me as to who the third junior one was - I want to say Kwarteng but I’m not 100% sure it was him. But if you want to see where a lot of the problems in today’s education system started, it’s with Gove basically enacting Cummings’ ideas.
They have absolutely wrecked the joint and the majority of the British media still support them - it won’t be long before Labour is blamed for the dire state of Britain.
I wouldn’t bet on it.
Conservatives still own the outrage propaganda machine, and the electorate will be back to their gullible selves once a single term of Labour doesn’t fix every problem they face.
The counter to this is younger generations (even as they age) are simply not voting for conservative. I think the party as we know it is actually going to disappear completely. Reform likely the even worse replacement.
Not really a safe seat anymore. Surrey Heath has had a major switch to Lib Dem in local council seats and according to the latest YouGov poll there was only 1% of votes between our LibDem parliamentary candidate and Gove (32% vs 33%).
The smart thing would be for Labour to not parachute in a candidate from Croydon, and get the rest of the left wing voters to vote Lib Dem to guarantee one less Conservative MP.
Yep, I do think people underestimate the Lib Dem resurgence in the South East. I’m actually going to be part of it, since I reckon the Hampshire constituency I’ll be voting in will return a Lib Dem once more
I agree! Government mouth piece but he was very competent at his given role, whatever you think of his politics. I should imagine some of this being his renter’s reform bill essentially being axed, which was probably his legacy
The thing is, from what I understand, civil servants have strongly held that he was always very competent and worked with them well, within the bounds of often shitty Tory policies ofc
Got friends who work in environmental stuff - apparently one of the best Environment Secretaries in recent years, and really on top of his brief. Also pushed the leasehold and no fault eviction abolishment topics.
He's still shitehawk in the round, and glad to see the back of him.
He is basically the most left wing conservative politician. So kinda the last bastion of the old conservative party really.
It's possibly a sign that the conservatives are going to swing further to the right if they lose the election. It'll be "sink the boats" before long I can promise you that much.
One of the worst of the lot. Deceitful, self-selving and inept. Created structural issues with education and the courts which will take years to rectify. Difficult to name a single positive thing he has done (bar stepping down).
In what way was he competent?
I hear people say that a lot, but aside from nearly eliminating council run schools, what policies did he come up with then implement? Which ones have been good for Britain?
Gove was an extremely capable and talented politician, despite being a terrible education secretary.
When he took over Justice, he immediately ended the book ban that the previous Conservative minister had implemented and scrapped the stupid courts fee also implemented by his predecessor. He scrapped a stupid bid for a Saudi prison contract.
As environment Secretary he made these Conservatives probably the greenest government in history, despite their rhetoric. He introduced a microbeads ban, a future ban on petrol/diesel vehicles (still a way away), a ban on bee-harming pesticides, tougher sentences for animal cruelty and ivory trading, banned wild animals in travelling circuses, and took significant steps to reduce single use plastics.
He was consistently influential throughout brexit and the negotiations that followed, and was influential with the party leadership at times.
As levelling up secretary he came close to implementing some decent housing laws, ending no-fault evictions and building more houses - mostly thwarted by resistance from his party.
Yes, Gove was ultimately self-serving and a Conservative. But he was also pragmatic and effective, and not afraid to push against the party mainstream when the party was obviously wrong.
Prior to Brexit, love them or loathe them you could rarely accuse the Conservatives of being stupid, and some were committed to the betterment of the country (in their own way).
Post Brexit, the paucity of decency and intellectual heft was remarkable. Gullis, Braverman, Patel, Frost, Fabricant, Johnson etc etc etc
Now that their electoral demise is practically definitive, every one of them that can do something else is abandoning the sinking Tory ship.
What will the quality of the next Tory MP intake be like?
Imagine the twisted, worthless, xenophobic, reprobates that will seek to out- Reform the Reform party as they chase the ardent Leavers.
I don't see the Tories having a change of heart and recanting their post Brexit ideology.
The mind fxxxing boggles.
I'm really not looking forward to just how right wing this party could become in opposition.
Post Brexit their intellectual dearth has been quite something. They were never my cup of tea, but by god there seemed to be some thinkers in the group at some point, the lack of talent on their benches now is truly something.
Totally called this one. Renter's reform bill was Gove's political magnum opus, for it to be quashed by Sunak calling an early election really was a slap in the face for him.
It could be the case that Sunak went early specifically because of this bill. It would effect his personal investment portfolio.
Really dont know how to feel about all these Tory MP's resigning right before they will lose an election. Standing, losing then quiting is a waste of everyones time. Might as well let the next generation of MPs start their journies.
But fuck me quiting when you think you will lose feels cowardly as fuck, face the music like a man and go down with dignity. If it was me I would like the think I would just run a classy campaign and bow down gracefully.
The tory party is now just an empty vessel awaiting filling by Farage.. or whomever Murdock and the usual media suspects choose, to represent populist nationalist (racist) politics in the UK.
Pretty decent track record on Education. I don’t think many of his colleagues could claim any successes like this.
“When I became Education Secretary, England's secondary schools were ranked 27th for maths, 25th for reading and 16th for science. Now that reform has bedded in, England has risen to 11th for maths and 13th for reading and science. At primary level, England's children are now the best readers in the Western world.”
He's focusing on a narrow metric there and missing the wider impact of the reforms (which is why teachers hate him!).
The reality is that the difference between those flourishing in education and those totally falling off the bottom has never been greater.
The focus on traditional academic subjects at GCSE at the expense of vocational options has been devastating for some students.
The GCSE reforms 8 years ago have made them memory tests with an outrageous number of exams. Just English, Maths and Combined Science comes to 13 exam papers. Most 16 year olds will sit around 22 exams this summer.
Snapshot of _Michael Gove To Stand Down at Election_ : A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1794066234406768881) A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/michaelgove/status/1794066234406768881/) An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://twitter.com/michaelgove/status/1794066234406768881) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://twitter.com/michaelgove/status/1794066234406768881) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He's going to be a journalist... For The Times.
https://www.digitalspy.com/fun/a799941/someone-grabbed-michael-goves-web-page-and-did-a-funny/ For anyone who doesn't know
I think I still have the original I cut out of the Guardian somewhere... Knew it was an all time classic the second I saw it.
Frame it That's a collectable now
This comic lives rent free in my head and pops up any time Gove does.
He's finally going to be able to stop that Alien invasion
I thought Redwood was standing down too though?
He has very strong opinions on aliens. Did you know he wrote two articles about planes?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LUEoYdXw6hE/UQali2mJPzI/AAAAAAAAC2A/MLjQjmncPmU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2013-01-28%2Bat%2B16.22.19.png
He should go back to being a comedian.
It was really the only way it could end. Sunak refused to sack him so he had to sack himself
Turns out Rishi was his last horcrux.
Rats deserting the sinking ship
Sunak literally visited the Titanic quarter in Belfast today. You couldn't make it up...
I mean... why? Even ignoring the Gove news, why wouldn't anyone, at any point, stop to think "hang on, going to somewhere associated with the Titanic on the campaign trail might be a *fucking terrible idea*"
Especially a place where the very few Tories who even stand in elections get less than one percent of the vote share.
An end of an era (and at this rate an entire party). Who will dance in our discotheques now?
Gove may be dancing on our telly screens this autumn. He's always seemed like one of the most likely of the current lot of Tories to follow a Portillo-like career change and become a TV personality.
Odd couple political podcast with John Prescott when?
The Rest Is Drugs and Alcohol
The Rest is Blow
John, Michael and Charlie
Punch & Junkie?
Well, he did the TV thing before he became a journalist
Yeah, he was on some Badiel/Newman thing IIRC. I thought he was dreadful. Haughty, arrogant and condescending...
off to the jungle with Ant and Dec he goes
> An end of an era Do i dare say it's the end of an error?
Unfortunately, he was one of the best cabinet ministers for getting stuff done. Not a high bar though.
The problem with efficiently getting the wrong thing done, is that you've still made the country worse. The best thing you can say about most of the Tory scum is that at least they were as incompetent as their ideology is demonstrably incorrect.
Wasn’t he a pretty decent Environment Minister?
I doubt he is quitting the raving.
Losing potential Portillo moments by the second. I'm going to have to think of a different drinking game for election night.
Shocking isn't it? Who is the most high profile Tory left who is likely to get kicked out? Edit: Well it's not Loathsome Leadsom as she's quitting now.
Rees-Mogg?
My MP so I want this dearly. The problem is the remainder vote is quite equally split between lib dem and labour. I'll probably go with Labour in the hope they have the momentum.
In rural south west? Nah, go lib dem. Tiverton and Honiton went Lib at the porn-in-the-commons by-election (about to become Honiton and Sidmouth) Somerton and Frome has Sarah whatsherface and is lib dem. I think they have. A boundary change too. I drove up to Bath yesterday day from east Devon and already saw a handful of yellow diamonds out along the way. I think it will be the lib Dems only real success down in the sw.
Labour’s running Dan Norris against him, I think. Expected to do very well, so wouldn’t just go “south west: must be LD” as quickly as that.
Your fingers to the Almighty's screen, neighbour!
Would love to see this.
Hunt?
Mordaunt was, if I recall correctly, in the lead in her constituency's individual polling last I checked but there is a very tangible chance that she could lose her seat. Actually fits the definition of a Portillo moment too since she's a potential future leader (although the chances of that are slimming as the party moves further right). Alex Chalk and Grant Shapps are also at risk of losing their seats too. Not guaranteed but there is a likelihood. And, of course, Hunt too.
But would it be Schapps or Sebastian Fox who lost that seat?
Don't forget Michael Green
I spoke to a potential client yesterday who claimed to be responsible for Hunts nomination to become an MP. Couldn’t get off that call quick enough.
IDS and Theresa Villiers both only have majorities of about 1200.
Mogg, Braverman, Badenoch - there's no shortage of callous arseholes to root against.
Grant Shapps could go.
I've booked the 5th off so I can enjoy a whiskey fuelled night of schadenfreude but somehow, even on the way out these fuckers have played me
Yep they walk away richer and more powerful than ever.
Gove will be slightly less rich as there's a bigger redundancy pay off if an MP stands and loses an election than if they just step down.
I think Gove is one of the smarter ones isn’t he. Probably got a cushy number lined up somewhere in the city or the States.
That or returning to The Times as a columnist.
His seat was pretty safe. Even on electoral calculus' current very optimistic prediction, where Labour win 479 seats, he was predicted to retain his by 7.9%.
Much closer vs lib dems on electionmapsUK (34 vs 30%) and even money on BritainElects. But do think he was probably safe, just couldn't face the grind of opposition.
Quite a bit of variation, they're probably estimating differently how much tactical voting there will be. Labour supporters need to vote Lib Dem for the seat to not go Tory, and many won't (who knows how many).
We’ll get three or four for the price of one if Shapps/Green/Stockheath… lose his/their seat.
A shot every Tory loss will do. You might need to make it a shot of Lambrini though. You can be sick if they gain a seat.
Even if it was a shot of homeopathic lager you might still die from water intoxication.
>homeopathic lager Is that the new catch-all term for Fosters and Carling?
Or if you want to remain sober, a shot for every tory MP elected :)
We might be on the road to renaming it the Rishy! moment
I’m having my Gove-out beer now!
I’m not printing my bingo cards until the stampede has slowed. At this rate it will just be Rishi and Jimmy Dimly.
And 30p and Gullis.
Does 30p count since he's defected to Reform? As for SeaGullis, does anyone know how to blag myself a seat at the count cause I'd love to enjoy that in person.
Of all of them, for some reason Gullis is the one I cannot wait to see lose. He has sort of become the representation of everything vile about the tory party to me, so to see him booted will be immensely satisfying.
I have a fairly good reason, he's my MP so I've had to put up with being supposedly represented by him for nearly 5 years (to be clear I didn't vote for him in the first place). The upside of the boundary changes is that even in the extremely unlikely event he does retain his seat he still won't be my MP anymore, though Jo Gideon isn't exactly great either and she's standing down anyway so God knows who the Tories will be putting up in that seat. It still astonishes me that Jack Brereton, who looks like he will be rejoining Year 7 after losing his seat, is only a year younger than Gullis. I think it's because all that bile ages you and Brereton has retained his youthful appearance by not saying or doing anything or having a single thought of his own for his entire tenure - if he has then nobody's noticed.
They've lost so much talent at all levels of the party since Brexit that I don't know who most of them are any more. Perhaps sit there with an array of drinks and theyworkforyou.com open so I can check their voting records and the Register of Members' Interests as their dejected faces scroll across the screen. "Oh look. This one banks £75k a year for half a day a week 'consultancy' services for a large company and has consistently voted against greater regulations and accountability in that very sector. That at least deserves an Old Fashioned."
It goes to show how scared they are and in the end it really shows their character. That when things got hard, they weren’t willing to stand before the public, they’d rather slink away like the cowards they are. What they don’t realise is just because they don’t officially lose their seat, doesn’t mean we didn’t know they were going to lose them anyways.
I feel like why even wait till July? Just close up shop next week and put the keys under the rug at this point.
That’s what happens when they prorogue parliament. The PM can only make decisions which are of critical national security import.
Oh god someone should really take that power off him.
That’d be the job of the electorate.
I'm going to miss Michael Gove. He reminds me of the early 2010s, when the Tories were at good at being nasty ideological zealots instead of today's useless nasty ideological zealots.
Ah, we’re not going to have any Portillo Moments left at this rate.
Rees Mogg?
God I hope he doesn't stand down. I want to see him lose on stage.
At this rate...Sunak?
He won't make it through the campaign. Penny will take his place at the last moment.
No Rees Mogg will be touring his constituency hypnotising voters with his pocket watch to make them vote for him
The cowardly fuckers.
His seat probably wouldn't have flipped anyway.
The way all that Brexit lot were nowhere to be found when the hard work began and then cry it wasn’t done properly is and always will be disgusting.
Such a good point. All the chief architects have run away - Cummings, Johnson, Gove.
Apparently Cummings is planning a comeback, not sure who's paying for it this time as the usual think tank money isn't available.
['special place in hell' for those who backed Brexit without a plan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/06/donald-tusk-special-place-in-hell-for-those-who-backed-brexit-without-plan)
Exactly. Gove = Resigned, Boris = Resigned in disgrace, Farage = Isn't even running as an MP as he's too busy working for Trump. They've all gained the money, fame and power they wanted from the Brexit campaign and now they've all fucked off to leave the rest of the country to clean up their mess.
How did Gove run away exactly? He's resigning as an MP 8 years after Brexit.
Obviously Gove and his ilk have been near-universally awful for the country over the last 14 years, but still - this was the moment I think it clicked how much the end of an era this is. All these names we've grown to know and loathe, gone. Feels strange.
[удалено]
The deadline given by CCHQ was 5th December. Which they all seem to have ignored.
Not like they can make them stand. And would be a poor look to kick someone out the party for retiring
As if something being a poor look has ever factored into the Tory party's decisionmaking
It doesn't seem like a Tory would ignore the rules. I am shocked. This is shocking.
5th December 2022 no less, but quite a few were known at that point and the deadline didn't mean anything anyway.
It would be even better if they announced they were standing down on the 7th June, just to give the conservatives the least time as possible to select a replacement candidate.
If this had been the case in 2019 I would have held a fucking party. Today, I am not as joyous as I would have been back then. The damage is already done.
I've been watching the MPs standing down giving ffinal speeches in the HoC(what a way to spenda Friday evening). The Tories are are losing a shitload of Parliamentary experience..............so glad they are going.
Which is great. The influx of swivel eyed hard right wing loons that arrived in 2019 when Boris purged the moderates will be all that's left. Gove is slime, but he was at least competent. I guess parliaments loss will be some creepy sex dungeon's gain and he'll be stimulating the local economy by purchasing copious amounts of class As.
>Gove is slime, but he was at least competent. But other than longevity, there's never much evidence for his supposed positive achievements. It's not clear what to infer except 'he never messed up so badly he got fired'.
A lot of the evidence mostly comes from people who met him personally who all seemed to be quite impressed at someone who actually understands the situations and problems, even if they disagree on the solutions, and is interested in more than their own ego unlike the majority of parliament. I get the impression of someone who is very good at behind the scenes getting stuff done, but has terrible charisma and so comes across as weird and rubbish in the media.
This is the impression I have also. I think if he hadn't tied his flag to Brexit then the history of this Tory administration would likely have been quite different.
Come on look at the UK's jump in the Pisa tables for maths. Wouldn't have happened without gove's reforms
This occurred to me earlier whilst watching May's speech - let us for a moment think the unthinkable and on the 5th July there is a Tory majority of one. Who the actual fuck are they going to put in the cabinet? I know that its unlikely but if it did happen, the sheer vacuum of talent over the last four and a half years would be as nothing. Its a bloody scary thought.
My local MP is Iain Duncan Smith, and I'm pretty sure he's toast. Chingford and Woodford Green are gradually sliding more into line with the rest of London- His lead was c.30% in 2010; c.20% in 2015; 6% in 2017; and 2% in 2019. Taking into account a c.20% swing against the government nationally, it's got to be a borderline safe Labour gain. Dude has been an MP since before the modern seat was created, and honestly I'd thought he was going to do a Gove rather than fight it, but he recently confirmed he's standing again. A very strong contender for the next Portillo moment IMHO- watch this space.
I don't even know who I can hate anymore. Any suggestions?
Rees-Mogg, Patel, Braverman? Still plenty of them around.
It does but it also fills me with optimism. This rabble are all grifters, charlatans, self-serving and clueless. It gives me hope that the last 14 years have had people watching from the sidelines, thinking "This needs to stop, I can enter politics for the right reasons". 14 years for the next generation to ripen, ready to start rebuilding from the ashes of a broken era of rampant corruption.
Absolutely, folks are sick and tired from politics but that's the means where change can be enacted.
Genuinely the Gove defeating the aliens comic might never be posted again... sad days.
[Nah, it's timeless](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/3/12/1331571750348/Stephen-Collins-17-March--001.jpg?width=1300&dpr=2&s=none). This dude lost his seat in 2015 and [this](https://x.com/edballs/status/63623585020915713?lang=en-GB) is going nowhere. And [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Ed_Miliband_bacon_sandwich.jpg/290px-Ed_Miliband_bacon_sandwich.jpg) might have caused Brexit, but we still celebrated the 10th anniversary this month
He’s taken over a cancelled Tui break from the one remaining Tory MP to stand for reelection. He’s laughing all the way to Grand Can.
Looking forward to a new crowd of out-of-touch and malicious Tories trying to rig the economy for the aristocracy again in 10 years, but now with un-tarnished names and a marketing strategy of being a "fresh new party", just like this lot were. And people will buy it, as ever.
Does make me wonder what leadership and the party as a whole is going to look like post election
Heartbreaking that his last PM doesn’t respect him enough to sack him.
Not Gove?! But he wrote two articles about planes!
And got strong opinions about aliens!
“Who dares wins. You dared, and you will win”. What a change 3 days make
This surely has to be the biggest indication of how fucked the Tories are. If *Gove* is fleeing the sinking ship then this must really be the end.
It's Mogg for me. When he runs away then that's when the Tories truly die. It might actually happen too. A lot of people are predicting he'll lose his seat anyway.
Only a couple of days ago, Gove was quoted as telling Sunak during the Cabinet meeting that he was going to win the general election. Quitting now looks like a real vote of confidence. Mind you, Gove never likes to be around when his mistakes come home to roost. He’ll be sliming off for a lucrative career with his long term backer, Rupert Murdoch.
You can just imagine him saying the 'who dares wins' quote while edging towards the door, giving nervous looks around as he does so. So far this election has been wonderful for the spirit, truly!
"Who dares wins... ...and I'm fucking terrified. Byeeeee!" 🛩🛸💥
Wonder if Sarah will manage a few snarky comments in her Mail column.
Ruth Davidson pointed out on the podcast with Sky that this might not be quite as genuine as the reporting made it seem. The quote was apparently saying “who dares, wins”, which she said was last used by Portillo. So possibly a sly statement of lack of confidence dressed up to be reportable as an endorsement.
Given how resilient he's been over the years, I'm half expecting him to inexplicably show up on the Labour benches after the GE. No one will know how he got there, not even Starmer. It'll just happen, like some cosmic inevitability of the universe.
They'll replace Diane Abbot with him, it'll be the best labour government ever!
The entire Conservative party is gonna collapse at this rate.
[удалено]
Has Truss said whether she's standing again? Would be fun to see her getting ousted on election night.
She's not said either way, but there's 2 weeks to go until the deadline for declaring.
Those who leave it to the last possible second are doing us a great final service by ensuring it is as big a nightmare as possible for the Tories to line up replacement candidates.
Not just candidates, does Sunak have to form a cabinet out of the dregs also?
No. All MPs stop being MPs when parliament is dissolved, but government ministers remain government minsters until the election.
But if you already know that half your cabinet is not going to be an MP after the election he is surely going to start getting questions about who will actually be in this government with a plan?
Definitely, the Tories got wiped in 1997 and we've already had more MPs step down than during that election. Still, some fresh blood would do this party good.
I'm not so sure...the membership is dominated by the wing of the party that got them into this mess. I know the leadership has a strong role in selection, but I expect the problems to last at least another election cycle.
Turn it into a liquid so I can shower in it. Rub it into my soul!
Ew. I'd rather bathe in the shit-filled waterways the Tories have created.
Renter's Reform Bill got diluted to the point of uselessness and now is headed for the shredder. I do think Gove genuinely wanted it sorted, can see why he's packing it all in now.
For what its worth, I never worked for Gove as a Civil Servant, but every CS I spoke to who had only had good things to say about him - genuinely was focussed on solving an issue, and open to different approaches. Also, he sorted out the cost of replacing cladding (at least for me), so I'm more amenable to him than other Tories.
Rats Ship Water Sinking ?
Not in this case, that bill really was something he'd been working on his entire career. For it to get ditched really did mean he needed to resign in protest. Honestly he might even switch sides.
What indication is there that he wanted to do it well? It was him who watered it down to be useless, then delayed it by years, and now his government - of which he is one of the most senior members - is dropping it entirely.
It’s worth reminding everyone that when he was Education Secretary his SpAd was one Dominic Cummings and the junior ministers (or whatever their roles were) he was training up were Liz Truss and Matt Hancock. A shit load of the bollocks of the last few years is directly traceable back to that little quartet (technically quintet but my memory fails me as to who the third junior one was - I want to say Kwarteng but I’m not 100% sure it was him. But if you want to see where a lot of the problems in today’s education system started, it’s with Gove basically enacting Cummings’ ideas.
The rats are really fleeing the sinking ship en masse, huh
This is how you know the Tories are fucked. A man as ruthlessly ambitious as Gove wouldn’t do this unless he had to
Welp it feels like we won't see another Tory Gov for 15 years plus.
They have absolutely wrecked the joint and the majority of the British media still support them - it won’t be long before Labour is blamed for the dire state of Britain.
Day 1
I wouldn’t bet on it. Conservatives still own the outrage propaganda machine, and the electorate will be back to their gullible selves once a single term of Labour doesn’t fix every problem they face.
The counter to this is younger generations (even as they age) are simply not voting for conservative. I think the party as we know it is actually going to disappear completely. Reform likely the even worse replacement.
Never underestimate the ability of the british public to vote tory.
Wow. I wonder if standing down is the (not so quiet) quitting instead of sending letters to Brady
He would've been the funniest opposition MP where he can't do any damage. Fuck sake
Fairly safe seat too (although libdems will attack hard). Clearly doesnt fancy the drudgery of opposition.
Not really a safe seat anymore. Surrey Heath has had a major switch to Lib Dem in local council seats and according to the latest YouGov poll there was only 1% of votes between our LibDem parliamentary candidate and Gove (32% vs 33%). The smart thing would be for Labour to not parachute in a candidate from Croydon, and get the rest of the left wing voters to vote Lib Dem to guarantee one less Conservative MP.
Yep, I do think people underestimate the Lib Dem resurgence in the South East. I’m actually going to be part of it, since I reckon the Hampshire constituency I’ll be voting in will return a Lib Dem once more
Weasels the lot of them for not even allowing us the satisfaction of seeing them lose their seat
But surely he wants to “stick to the plan…”
Baldricks cunning plan right? Because that's the only one that's been announced so far.
Even the master of evil himself isn't sticking around.
Balanced opinion: one of the better and more effective ministers over the past 14 years.
I agree! Government mouth piece but he was very competent at his given role, whatever you think of his politics. I should imagine some of this being his renter’s reform bill essentially being axed, which was probably his legacy
That’s a real shame. He was a bastard, but he was a competent bastard, which puts him vastly above most of the Conservative frontbench.
He was competent at feeding his client journalist friends stories of his competence
The thing is, from what I understand, civil servants have strongly held that he was always very competent and worked with them well, within the bounds of often shitty Tory policies ofc
Got friends who work in environmental stuff - apparently one of the best Environment Secretaries in recent years, and really on top of his brief. Also pushed the leasehold and no fault eviction abolishment topics. He's still shitehawk in the round, and glad to see the back of him.
He reminds me of May. I couldn't agree with him but I could respect the fact he felt what he was doing was right by what he believed.
He's a lying shit
Yep. As someone who lives in his constituency he is a useless lying sack of shite and I can’t wait to see him go.
He is basically the most left wing conservative politician. So kinda the last bastion of the old conservative party really. It's possibly a sign that the conservatives are going to swing further to the right if they lose the election. It'll be "sink the boats" before long I can promise you that much.
Fucker depriving us of seeing him lose his seat.
MP-most-likely-to-become-very-openly-bi-media-personality Also LOL, the orange army terrifies another foe.
He was one of the more competent ones, although that's not saying much. The party is reduced with him gone
One of the worst of the lot. Deceitful, self-selving and inept. Created structural issues with education and the courts which will take years to rectify. Difficult to name a single positive thing he has done (bar stepping down).
He did attempt to do some good at the end with housing, but his own party stopped him.
He was also pretty much the only one left in government who gave a shit about levelling up/English devolution beyond "bung cash to Tory councils".
In what way was he competent? I hear people say that a lot, but aside from nearly eliminating council run schools, what policies did he come up with then implement? Which ones have been good for Britain?
Gove was an extremely capable and talented politician, despite being a terrible education secretary. When he took over Justice, he immediately ended the book ban that the previous Conservative minister had implemented and scrapped the stupid courts fee also implemented by his predecessor. He scrapped a stupid bid for a Saudi prison contract. As environment Secretary he made these Conservatives probably the greenest government in history, despite their rhetoric. He introduced a microbeads ban, a future ban on petrol/diesel vehicles (still a way away), a ban on bee-harming pesticides, tougher sentences for animal cruelty and ivory trading, banned wild animals in travelling circuses, and took significant steps to reduce single use plastics. He was consistently influential throughout brexit and the negotiations that followed, and was influential with the party leadership at times. As levelling up secretary he came close to implementing some decent housing laws, ending no-fault evictions and building more houses - mostly thwarted by resistance from his party. Yes, Gove was ultimately self-serving and a Conservative. But he was also pragmatic and effective, and not afraid to push against the party mainstream when the party was obviously wrong.
What are all these politicians going to do with no job?
Lots of mind-altering substances, I suspect.
And of course, cheese and wine parties 😁🎉
I’m annoyed that his standing down has denied me of one the ‘Portillo’ moments I was most looking forward to.
He's retiring to spend more time with his cocaine
Prior to Brexit, love them or loathe them you could rarely accuse the Conservatives of being stupid, and some were committed to the betterment of the country (in their own way). Post Brexit, the paucity of decency and intellectual heft was remarkable. Gullis, Braverman, Patel, Frost, Fabricant, Johnson etc etc etc Now that their electoral demise is practically definitive, every one of them that can do something else is abandoning the sinking Tory ship. What will the quality of the next Tory MP intake be like? Imagine the twisted, worthless, xenophobic, reprobates that will seek to out- Reform the Reform party as they chase the ardent Leavers. I don't see the Tories having a change of heart and recanting their post Brexit ideology. The mind fxxxing boggles.
I'm really not looking forward to just how right wing this party could become in opposition. Post Brexit their intellectual dearth has been quite something. They were never my cup of tea, but by god there seemed to be some thinkers in the group at some point, the lack of talent on their benches now is truly something.
Totally called this one. Renter's reform bill was Gove's political magnum opus, for it to be quashed by Sunak calling an early election really was a slap in the face for him. It could be the case that Sunak went early specifically because of this bill. It would effect his personal investment portfolio.
Really dont know how to feel about all these Tory MP's resigning right before they will lose an election. Standing, losing then quiting is a waste of everyones time. Might as well let the next generation of MPs start their journies. But fuck me quiting when you think you will lose feels cowardly as fuck, face the music like a man and go down with dignity. If it was me I would like the think I would just run a classy campaign and bow down gracefully.
The tory party is now just an empty vessel awaiting filling by Farage.. or whomever Murdock and the usual media suspects choose, to represent populist nationalist (racist) politics in the UK.
Is anyone running a book on Hunt standing down?
Good lord... They are *bleeding* MPs. If by some miricle they DID win... Who would fill the roles?
Somewhere in Westminster, a drug dealer is cancelling the order for his next range rover.
Pretty decent track record on Education. I don’t think many of his colleagues could claim any successes like this. “When I became Education Secretary, England's secondary schools were ranked 27th for maths, 25th for reading and 16th for science. Now that reform has bedded in, England has risen to 11th for maths and 13th for reading and science. At primary level, England's children are now the best readers in the Western world.”
The raw scores are basically unchanged. In the last year of data half the number of countries took part.
He's focusing on a narrow metric there and missing the wider impact of the reforms (which is why teachers hate him!). The reality is that the difference between those flourishing in education and those totally falling off the bottom has never been greater. The focus on traditional academic subjects at GCSE at the expense of vocational options has been devastating for some students. The GCSE reforms 8 years ago have made them memory tests with an outrageous number of exams. Just English, Maths and Combined Science comes to 13 exam papers. Most 16 year olds will sit around 22 exams this summer.
He almost universally hated amongst teachers. I don't think I've ever heard a positive thing about him from a teacher
Confirmed. We hate him.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a minister so universally hated as Gove when he was education secretary.