Murnaghan 8.06.14 Interview with Tim Montgomerie, Conservative commentator

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

ANNA JONES: More on the political fallout from the row which has cost the Home Secretary, Theresa May’s aide her job and seen Education Secretary Michael Gove forced to apologise.  Here with me to discuss that is the Conservative commentator, Tim Montgomerie, who knows both Cabinet ministers well.  This has been a very public row and a very public ticking off as well, just how damaging is that?

TIM MONTGOMERIE: Well it’s been a distraction I think at the moment for the government.  It has been a good week for the Conservative party, we had the Queen’s Speech with lots of important announcements coming forward and then of course the Conservative victory in the Newark by-election which only a few weeks ago wasn’t necessarily predicted and rather on the Sunday after those things, on your programme Anna, we’re not talking about those achievements, we’re talking about the row between Michael Gove and Theresa May and that’s obviously why Number Ten are so frustrated and have taken the action that they did yesterday.

AJ: Yes, and Theresa May has lost a close aide, we’ve had an apology from Michael Gove as well so who was more badly wounded by this do you think?

TIM MONTGOMERIE: I think both are wounded in different ways.  I think there is a concern at the heart of the government that Michael Gove ranges too freely, he talks a little bit too much to journalists and he is perhaps a little bit too antagonistic to some of his colleagues, he doesn’t focus completely on his own brief but is playing politics too much and I think this will have been a big warning to him behind the scenes not to do that and of course the disclosure of this letter in the early hours of the morning by Theresa May’s special advisor hitting back at Michael Gove caused Theresa May to lose one of her most important advisors and Theresa May will miss Fiona Cunningham, a very effective special advisor, very much.

AJ: Well suggestions as well from Labour’s Yvette Cooper, suggesting that the disclosure of that private correspondence in a public format is breaking the Ministerial Code or there are certainly questions about it, is Theresa May still under pressure do you think?

TIM MONTGOMERIE: She will have to answer those questions but I suspect most people in the country, most viewers of this programme are not so interested in that.  What the government will be judged on rightly is now can Theresa May, Michael Gove, Eric Pickles who also has responsibility in this area, will they come together and sort out this problem of Islamic infiltration in schools?  It does seem to be a long-standing problem, the last government under Labour didn’t get to grips with it, the coalition has questions to answer, Michael Gove is due to make a very important statement in the House of Commons tomorrow and I think if he takes the kind of tough action that the papers are talking about including lifetime bans for the teaching staff and governors who are allegedly involved in what’s happened in Birmingham, I think that will be what the government can close down this issue with, not tittle-tattle about who said what, who approved which letters etc.

AJ: Well that’s right and that’s something we have been discussing and will discuss but back to the tittle-tattle if you like, as you describe it, it is still important isn’t it because David Cameron coming out this publicly in rebuking his Ministers, what is really going on here?  Is it some kind of power play ahead of a future down the line leadership battle?

TIM MONTGOMERIE: David Cameron had to act very assertively because you can’t have two of the most senior and the most effective ministers in a government, the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary, clashing so publicly because if those giants can behave like this then what does that say about special advisors and ministers lower down the league table?  So David Cameron has acted very strongly and partly because I think he does worry that leadership speculation is getting out of hand, we’ve had previous reports that Michael Gove was briefing against Boris Johnson and now there is this sense that there is a tension between Michael Gove and Theresa May about her ambitions and I hope that Number Ten are thinking, no more of this please and that will be the message they will want everyone to have heard.

AJ: Okay, Tim Montgomerie, very interesting to hear your views, thanks very much.