MICHAEL Gove hailed Douglas Ross, a political “super-heavyweight”, after the Scottish Tory leader had been dismissed by a Cabinet minister as a “lightweight”.
After the Moray MP demanded that the Prime Minister resign due to the partygate scandal, Jacob Rees-Mogg made this comment.
Gove also mocked the Scottish Conservative chief by stating that Ross was “in Elgin” and that the national Tory leader, Mr. Ross, is in London.
The Cabinet minister is now on a charm offensive and claims that he and Boris Johnson both admire the leader of the Scottish Tory party.
After being asked about Rees Mogg’s comments, he said, “Well, in mine opinion, Douglas is super heavyweight.”
Gove stated, “Douglas Ross has been a friend of mine.” He is a great leader for the Scottish Conservatives. He does an amazing job in Westminster, where he holds government to account, and also in Holyrood.
However, the Levelling Up Secretary did not tell Rees-Mogg to apologize for his insult. Gove said, “I can only speak for me in this regard and I believe that Douglas has assembled an elite team in Holyrood.”
When pressed to apologize to his Cabinet colleague, he said: “I don’t invite anyone to apologize to me.” I will apologise if I make a mistake.”
He said: “And speaking for myself and for the Prime Minister, I think Douglas is an amazing champion for Scotland. He holds the First Minister accountable and has the right policy agenda to ensure the future of Scotland.
The Levelling up Secretary concluded that “We should, as a Conservative Team, recognize that we are stronger together. We are stronger together as a United Kingdom. We are stronger together as one Conservative Family.”
Later, when asked by STV about Ross’ Elgin joke, Gove said he was only making a geographical point. He said, “Sometimes people ask stupid questions and get smart alec responses. That was me back then.
BBC Radio Scotland also interviewed Gove about new partygate allegations against him. He is accused of attending numerous other events, which the Met police are investigating.
Gove stated that he was behind his boss 100%, insisting that he is a great Prime Minister.
Gove stated, “I have been working with him since more than two years now.” “I have seen him at his best during the pandemic. He was focused on getting the vaccines we needed.
The host rebuffed the claim that Tory leader was laser-focused, pointing out that at least 16 parties were present on Downing Street during lockdown. Twelve of these are under investigation by police. Some of them, the PM, is believed to have attended.
Gove responded: “The Met quite correctly are going to investigation these allegations. The media reported exactly what they heard. After that, the Met will close the investigation. Then we can make a judgment about who did what.”
Senior Conservative leader also stated that his government would not apologize for spending almost PS10 trillion on PPE supplies which ended up being thrown away. The UK Department of Social Care and Health have published new accounts that show PS8.7bn was spent on PPE by the UK Government during the pandemic.
He told GMS that he didn’t apologize for doing everything to ensure PPE was available for front-line workers. “We work with every government in the UK during the global race for PPE. High prices were paid, but they were being paid by all.”
The Levelling Up Secretary stated earlier that his boss would not apologize for his discredit claim that Sir Keir Sternmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
Sky News’ Gove stated that he believes this to be a sensitive topic and should be treated with care. He also expressed great respect for those who are able to help victims of the crimes of a horrible, terrible criminal.
“But, and it’s certainly not something I want to dwell upon because it is unique sensitive – it is the CPS case that they apologised for handling this case and what occurred in 2009. I believe we should acknowledge that an apologies was made at that time and be respectful of that.”
He said: “Keir Sternmer acknowledged that mistakes were made by the organization of which he was chief, to his credit.” He was very open about these mistakes.”
