Michael Gove reveals regret over Boris Johnson leadership bid

Michael Gove has expressed regret about his decision to blow up Boris Johnson's leadership bid after the Brexit referendum, which saw him accused of "backstabbing".

The former senior cabinet minister has been speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby as part of a special episode of Electoral Dysfunction marking a decade since the 2016 vote to leave the EU.

Now a peer in the House of Lords, Baron Gove admitted he probably did not do "the right thing" by warning against Mr Johnson's leadership prospects in the aftermath of the referendum.

A Conservative Party leadership race was kicked off following the resignation of David Cameron, who led the Remain campaign and lost. Mr Johnson and Baron Gove had been two of the most prominent Leave campaigners.

Former mayor of London Mr Johnson was seen as the clear favourite to replace Lord Cameron, but before he officially declared if he would stand, his until then loyal friend and fellow campaigner turned against him.

Baron Gove said Mr Johnson "cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead". It led The Daily Telegraph to accuse him of "the most spectacular political assassination in a generation".

In the end, Mr Johnson announced he would not stand in the race, and backed Andrea Leadsom. But she later dropped out, leaving only Theresa May standing, who went on to become prime minister.

Asked about his late intervention which killed Mr Johnson's campaign before it began, Baron Gove told Sky News: "I think on balance, it would have been better all round if I had thought, 'OK, I may have these profound worries, but it is better that I keep them to myself and that I do everything possible to make things work.'

"I think that would probably have been the right thing, but other people will make their own judgment about whether or not that was."

Read more from Sky News:
Starmer promises change is coming
Anthony Joshua discharged from hospital

Baron Gove also admitted he recognised at the time that Mr Johnson was "the senior partner".

But he added: "In the days immediately afterwards, the way in which Boris behaved portrayed to me a fundamental unseriousness about the scale of the task that made me feel that he wasn't ready to discharge the responsibilities of being prime minister."

Pushed by Beth Rigby whether he has further regrets from that time, he said: "As I look back, there are some decisions where I think that was absolutely the right thing, there are decisions where that's absolutely the wrong thing, and some things where I think it is just unknowable.

"What I can't do is… really truly know in those circumstances how things might have worked out."

No regrets over infamous bus

One thing Baron Gove does not regret is the "Brexit bus" emblazoned with the claim that the UK sends £350m to the EU every week, which should instead go to the NHS. It was widely criticised by other politicians and statisticians as being inaccurate.

"I can recite facts and figures forever, not just proving, but proving beyond doubt that those statements were true and if anything, I will never convince anyone on the other side," Baron Gove said.

Remain campaign 'lamentable'

On today's special episode of Electoral Dysfunction, Beth Rigby was also joined by former Liberal Democrat leader and Lord Cameron's deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.

He said the Remain side ran a "lamentable campaign", while the then chancellor, George Osborne, "clearly decided to conduct this referendum like a sort of bean counting exercise".

He also told Electoral Dysfunction: "I'm not overstating the case to say that if the Liberal Democrats had continued to be in government [post-2015], then Brexit would not have happened. Undoubtedly."

Mr Clegg also warned of the rise of the populists on both sides of the Atlantic.

He said: "You see it across America, North America and Europe. A deep, deep dissatisfaction, election after election, vote after vote.

"Of course, over time that means that mainstream parties fail and are elbowed aside by more populist movements who are much, much better at saying to voters that they're going to deliver some vast sweeping change, but of course they won't either."

He also said he thinks Nigel Farage has a "very strong chance" of becoming PM if there was an election tomorrow.

(c) Sky News 2026: Michael Gove reveals regret over Boris Johnson leadership bid