David Cameron brands former ally Michael Gove a ‘lunatic’ and blames him for Brexit defeat

Liz Bates

David Cameron reportedly considers his former ally Michael Gove to be a “lunatic” and blames him for the loss of his career after the Brexit referendum defeat.



According to the Sunday Times, the ex-Prime Minister is preparing to launch an attack on his former friend and colleague in his forthcoming memoirs.

Mr Cameron, whose political career ended after he lost the EU referendum, will claim he was blindsided when Mr Gove backed Leave and say he blames him more than Boris Johnson for the defeat.

A source told the newspaper: “Cameron was really anti-Gove. He was saying he was a lunatic.

“He had not realised quite how mad Michael Gove was until that whole incident. He was saying he feels even more cross with Gove than Boris.”

The former Prime Minister is said to hold no ill will towards Mr Johnson, and believes that he would be well placed to enter Number 10 if the Brexit vote had gone the other way.

The source continued: “He said Boris would probably now be running off against George Osborne for the leadership of the Tory party if Gove had not mucked it up.”

“He’s going to put that in his book.”

Mr Gove was a leading figure alongside Mr Johnson in the Brexit campaign, and later launched a botched bid for the Tory leadership.

Mr Cameron is reportedly still working on his memoirs and has been sharing chapters with friends.

One said his reflections on Brexit and his personal life were “very good”, but added that the parts “where he tries to explain his achievements as prime minister are pretty dull”.