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LONDON — Michael Gove — a Cabinet veteran and key player in Britain’s Brexit campaign — will not stand as a Conservative MP in the upcoming general election, he announced Friday.
In a letter posted on social media, the U.K. housing secretary — who has served under four prime ministers in a string of top government jobs since the Tories came to office in 2010 — confirmed he would not be seeking re-election to his Surrey Heath seat.
“No-one in politics is a conscript,” Gove wrote. “We are volunteers who willingly choose our fate. And the chance to serve is wonderful. But there comes a moment when you know that it is time to leave. That a new generation should lead.”
Gove is just the latest Conservative MP to throw in the towel ahead of a July 4 election triggered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week, with his party lagging badly in the polls.
It brings to 79 the number of Tories are stepping down, with the total now surpassing the number of Conservatives who opted to quit before Tony Blair’s 1997 Labour landslide.
Former Cabinet minister Greg Clark added his name to the growing list Friday, alongside veteran Euroskeptic John Redwood.
Gove, a former journalist, gained a reputation as a zealous reformer of public services in government, railing against the Whitehall machine and schooling establishment in his days as David Cameron’s education secretary, dubbing them “the blob.”
He campaigned strongly for Britain to quit the EU in 2016, a decision that put him at odds with Cameron and many of his Cabinet colleagues.
His decision to run for the leadership after Cameron quit effectively killed Boris Johnson’s first 2016 run for the top job, after he said his hitherto close friend lacked the qualities to lead. But he was brought into the government fold when Johnson eventually became prime minister in 2019.
In his exit letter, Gove heaped praise on all four prime ministers he had served under, and said he was “proud to have led the Vote Leave campaign alongside” Johnson.
“Fundamentally our country is stronger with politicians in Westminster able to control our laws, our borders and our money,” he said of Brexit.
Gove — whose Surrey Heath seat enjoyed a 18,349-seat majority at the last election — made clear that he would do “everything I can” to support the “selfless” and “hard working” Sunak, who is fighting to turn around a 20-plus point poll deficit for the Tories at this election.
