Gove forced to apologise and May adviser forced to quit

[dutchman]

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, was forced to apologise to David Cameron, after an extraordinary public row with the Home Secretary over Islamic extremism in state schools.



Mr Gove was ordered to write a formal letter of apology to the Prime Minister and a separate letter apologising to the Home Office official in charge of counter-terrorism, who had been the target of his criticisms in the press.

One of Theresa May’s closest colleagues, her special adviser Fiona Cunningham, was also forced to resign after a Downing Street inquiry found she had been the source of an acidic briefing against Mr Gove last week.

No 10 announced the disciplinary action in an attempt to bring to an end a crisis that infuriated Mr Cameron and overshadowed last week’s Queen’s Speech. Mr Cameron acted after receiving the findings of an internal investigation into the row, led by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood.

The row erupted after Mr Gove briefed The Times newspaper — as an anonymous “source” — over the “Trojan Horse” plot to Islamicise secular state schools in Birmingham. He accused the Home Office of failing to “drain the swamp” of extremists and criticised Charles Farr, Mrs May’s counter-terrorism adviser, who is in a relationship with Miss Cunningham.

When The Times went to print on Tuesday night, Mrs May hit back. The Home Secretary’s office published what had been a private Cabinet letter she sent to Mr Gove suggesting his department had failed to act over alleged plots to take over state schools in Birmingham.

Such letters between Cabinet colleagues are normally kept private. Mrs May’s decision to publish on the Home Office website at 12.24am on Wednesday has caused concern in Whitehall. It has now been taken down.

The Prime Minister was said to have been “deeply frustrated” that the row between two of his most senior ministers should have burst into the public domain on the day of the Queen’s Speech.

It overshadowed the morning’s radio and television reports on the Government’s announcement of its proposed legislation for the next year.

He took the extraordinary step of ordering Sir Jeremy to conduct an immediate investigation to establish the facts behind his Cabinet ministers’ war. Sir Jeremy is understood to have spoken to Mrs May and Mr Gove, as well as their advisers, and the Prime Minister’s head of communications, Craig Oliver.

Mr Cameron received Sir Jeremy’s report when he returned to Downing Street after the D-Day anniversary commemorations in France.

Until Friday night, Mrs May was said to have been fighting to keep Miss Cunningham in her post. Her departure will be a significant blow to the Home Secretary, who senior Tories say has been building up her power base in preparation for a future leadership campaign.



However, Downing Street sources indicated that Miss Cunningham had paid the price for the strength of the Home Secretary’s retaliation against Mr Gove. She was identified as the aide to Mrs May quoted anonymously as suggesting that Mr Gove’s failure to deal with extremism in schools “scares me”.

Mr Gove had earlier denied that the Government had been damaged by his public row or that he was considering his position in the Cabinet. Mr Cameron spoke in person to Mr Gove and while sources indicated that he had no desire to lose such a “talented minister”, he was not prepared to put up with his behaviour.

Labour sought to step up the pressure on Mr Gove over the row. Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, accused the two feuding Conservatives of serious failures.

[dutchman]

[rebbonk]

They behave like children, yet we trust them to run the country!

Frankly, I'd sack the pair of them, and any other politician that behaves in any non-professional way. It is high time that the UK citizens got some decent politicians to run the country, not these immature, spoiled, little brats. - And the imbeciles wonder why voters can't be bothered? Haven't they got mirrors?

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Theresa May ducks SEVEN questions on Gove row leak



Theresa May insisted yesterday she did not authorise the publication of her explosive letter to Michael Gove, as she repeatedly stonewalled questions from MPs over how much she knew about the leak.

As speculation swirled about the impact of her spat with the Education Secretary on a forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle, Mrs May told MPs that an inquiry by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood had cleared her of releasing the correspondence.

The letter, which was published on the Home Office website, dramatically escalated a bitter row between the two ministers over extremism in schools.

The Home Secretary was asked seven times by Labour MPs about whether she knew the letter to Mr Gove would be made public at some point, whether it was written in order to be leaked, and why there was a three-day delay in removing it from the website. But she would say only that she had not authorised its release.

Labour claimed the publication of the letter – in which Mrs May demanded to know what the Education Department had done about warnings of extremism in Birmingham schools in 2010 – was a breach of ministerial code if it was authorised by the Home Secretary.

Asked by Labour MP Nic Dakin whether she knew her special adviser Fiona Cunningham – who was forced to resign at the weekend over the incident – was going to publish the letter, Mrs May simply insisted it was ‘a bit rich getting so many questions about special advisers from the party of Damian McBride’, a reference to Gordon Brown’s disgraced spin doctor.

Asked by veteran Dennis Skinner whether she was battling Mr Gove because she was ‘getting ready for a succession battle’ for the Tory leadership, Mrs May replied icily: ‘I do not think that question should be dignified with a response.’

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘The Home Secretary claimed she did not authorise the release of the letter. Yet time and again she refused to answer whether she wrote it in order to leak it, who did release it and why she left it on the Home Office website for three days.’

Events last week were 'shambolic for the Government, but much worse for everyone else' and must not be repeated, said the shadow home secretary.

She demanded assurances from Mrs May and Mr Gove that they 'will not put their personal reputations and ambitions ahead of making the right decisions for the country'.

Ms Cooper asked why Mrs May had allowed her letter to remain on the Home Office website for three and a half days before it was removed, and demanded to know: 'Did she write that letter in order for it to be leaked, and did she authorise its release to the media?'

She asked whether Mrs May stood by her claim in the letter that oversight arrangements for schools in Birmingham were not 'adequate'.

Mrs Cooper said that the Home Office's strategy on preventing extremism had been 'criticised from all sides, not just by the Education Secretary, for failing to engage with local communities and having become too narrow, leaving gaps.'

She added: 'She now needs to focus on getting those policies back on track, because it matters to communities across the country that there's a serious and sensible approach to these issues and joint working at the very top of the Government.'