Michael Gove has attempted to put days of damaging headlines about his cocaine use behind him by launching a series of attacks on Tory leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson.
The environment secretary criticised Johnson’s pledge to cut tax for higher earners, accused him of “hiding in the bunker” during the contest, and taunted him over the 2016 leadership race, when he dropped out after Gove quit his campaign to run himself.
Gove rejected calls to quit after being accused of hypocrisy over his cocaine use, insisting he was “in it to win it” and had repeatedly defied the odds by winning the Brexit referendum and delivering reforms at the departments of education and environment.
Launching his campaign in a warehouse-style loft space in Millbank Tower, Westminster, Gove said: “Every time I’ve been given a job I’ve been told it’s impossible and have delivered.”
Gove then launched a broadside at Johnson, joking about forcing the former foreign secretary into quitting the race.
In remarks which allies insisted were not intended to be innuendo about Johnson’s sex life, Gove said: “On the other candidate, let me say this - if I get through, which I’m sure I will actually against Mr Johnson, this is what I will say to him: Mr Johnson, whatever you do, don’t pull out.
“I know you have before, I know you may not believe in your heart that you can do it, but the Conservative party membership deserve a choice, so let’s have a proper race.”
Gove went on the attack over Johnson’s so-called ‘submarine’ approach to the race, in which he has shunned a formal campaign launch and barely appeared in public.
The Surrey Heath MP said he was the best man to negotiate Brexit because he was willing to put his head above the parapet and do TV debates for Vote Leave during the 2016 referendum.
He said: “We need someone who has been tested in the heat of the battle, someone who is prepared to go under the studio arc lights in order to make the case for Conservatism, someone who will take on Jeremy Corbyn at the despatch box, not hide in their bunker.”
Rounding off his salvo of attacks on the runaway favourite for the leadership, Gove went after Johnson’s pledge to cut income tax for people earning more than £50,000 if he becomes PM.
“One thing I will never do as prime minister is to use our tax and benefits system to give the already wealthy another tax cut,” Gove said.
“I believe in low taxes and pro-enterprise policies but the poor must come first.”
Gove meanwhile attempted to bat off repeated questions about his admission that he took cocaine “on several occasions” more than 20 years ago.
“I explained ... my regret at my past mistakes,” he said.
“But, one of the consequences of having had the chance to reflect on my mistakes, is that when I was justice secretary I was determined to ensure that those people who had fallen into the net of the criminal justice system were given all the support, the help and the care they needed in order to achieve redemption and to enjoy a second chance.”
And he confirmed he would be willing to delay Brexit if he felt an improved withdrawal deal was in the offing but he needed more time to get it over the line.
He said: “Yes, I would be willing to delay, for a day, or a week, or whatever is required, in order to get that deal over the line if we were making progress.”
Setting out his policy platform, Gove also said he would look at scrapping VAT and replacing it with a new sales tax, promised to abolish business rates for small and medium-sized enterprises to boost the high streets, and pledged to restore per pupil funding in schools.
Later, Gove insisted he was not making a sexual innuendo about Johnson when telling him “don’t pull out” of the contest.
Speaking to reporters outside a leadership hustings in parliament, he said: “It was purely about the last leadership contest.
“Some people have much more imagination when it comes to interpreting these things.”