Michael Gove took everyone by surprise on June 30 when he denounced his Brexit partner, Boris Johnson, and entered the Tory leadership contest . Alistair Lexden touched on a few points about his career in a letter to The Daily Telegraph. When it was published on July 5, the second paragraph of the letter was omitted.
SIR--In small matters at least Michael Gove does not always show a strict regard for truth. For some years he put it about that I turned him down for a job in the Conservative Research Department in the Eighties because he was “insufficiently Conservative”. I did not even interview him.
His fine writing has not been free from misfortune. His book Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right - written when he himself was on the right of the Party - had to be withdrawn after its publication in 1995 because he was unable to sustain assertions about a litigious young journalist. That was a pity since it contains a sentence of imperishable political truth: “the Tory Party has shown that it does not reward radicals who resign to launch crusades”.
Was it just imagination, or did the Queen show a certain froideur when she received her speech at the last State Opening of Parliament from her Lord Chancellor, who had been so widely suspected of speaking ill-advisedly to Mr Rupert Murdoch about the royal views of Brexit?
Lord Lexden
London SW1