Tag Archives: michael gove

Gove team fail to take his own advice over smear using kids

9:49am Wed March 20th

References to a journalists’ children in an attack earlier in the week by @toryeducation shocked even seasoned observers of the Twitter account, which is thought to be operated by Michael Gove’s team:

Perhaps team Gove should take their boss’ advice. Asked about the prospect of Nick Clegg’s kids going to private school last month, the secretary of state opined:

“I would defend anybody who makes any decision about a child’s education in their interests … I think it’s terrible politics to drag people’s children in and try to make an issue out of it.

“If you try to get party political advantage out of a mother’s love for their child that’s just wrong.”

Assurances previously given to the Observer that tweets from @toryeducation would be “free of its previously abusive tone” turned out to be worthless.

Michael Gove adviser admits sending ‘mental health smear’ email

7:00pm Thu March 14th

1 comment

Michael Gove’s controversial adviser Dominic Cummings has admitted sending an email in which he appears to smear a journalist as suffering from mental health problems.

In an email to Ian Mearns, a Labour member of the select committee which quizzed Gove on the behaviour of his SpAds yesterday, Cummings says he did not “circulate” the email to a number of journalists — but does admit an off-the-record negative briefing to Indy hack Richard Garner:

“you shd speak to [FT journalist] Chris Cook about a good therapist”

Cummings writes:

With a Twitter account linked to Cummings describing Chris Cook as a “Walter Mitty” character and “stalker”, Scrapbook is puzzled as to what alternative meaning of “therapist” one should infer.

It appears he thinks that it’s okay to smear people — provided it’s off the record. But the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers could not be clearer:

“The highest standards of conduct are expected of special advisers and, specifically, the preparation or dissemination of inappropriate material or personal attacks has no part to play in the job of being a special adviser as it has no part to play in the conduct of public life. Any special adviser ever found to be disseminating inappropriate material will automatically be dismissed by their appointing Minister”

Cummings is running out of friends in Whitehall. As Scrapbook exclusively revealed last month, Cameron advisers told senior political journalists that they would suffer no blowback from Number 10 if they scalped the Gove aide.

The education secretary refused to discuss the issue yesterday after one of Mearns’ Labour colleagues fluffed his question, referring to the email as “private”.

If you followed the Gove/Cummings “private email” logic then Damian McBride might still work in politics.

Labour MPs on Education Committee let Michael Gove off the hook

10:56am Wed March 13th

2 comments

Labour MPs on the Education Committee have fluffed a vital opportunity to skewer Michael Gove. An email from special adviser Dominic Cummings suggesting a journalist suffered from mental health problems may well have breached rules on negative briefings.

It was down to Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson to raise the issue, but he gave Gove room to escape by claiming that Indy hack Richard Garner was a Whitehall staffer. The exchange was excruciating:

Gove: That was not an email which was sent to a permanent civil servant
Esterson: Yes it was
Gove: Who?
Esterson: It was sent to a member of staff, Richard Garner
Gove: Richard Garner is the education editor of the Independent, not a permanent civil servant

This was a cock-up from which Esterson never recovered, allowing Gove to go on the attack against an “inappropriate line of questioning”:

“It seems to me you have your facts wrong … If you can get your facts right and you can give me a proper question and to explain the relevance to me, then I’ll answer it fully.”

Gove was also allowed to describe emails between journalists and his special advisers as “private correspondence” without being challenged.

The controversial @ToryEducation Twitter account — thought to be operated by a group of people including SpAd Dominic Cummings — crowed moments after proceedings concluded:

#edselctee #won

— Tory education news (@toryeducation) March 13, 2013

They’re not wrong.

Gove to be grilled on allegations he misled Parliament over ‘bullying’

9:18am Wed March 13th

Add a comment

Michael Gove is to be grilled by MPs this morning over claims he misled parliament in relation to allegations of bullying by his staff. The education secretary will face the Education Committee at 9:30am in Portcullis House.

In an outbreak of SpAd line management redolent of Jeremy Hunt’s defence to the Leveson Inquiry, Gove had previously claimed that he had no clue about ”allegations about [his advisers] acting inappropriately” — despite a £25,000 payout to a staff member who claimed she was bullied. He told MPs:

“I am not omniscient, but I have seen no evidence of that.”

Gove’s attempt to pre-empt further digging by the only served to “piss off” committee members. He wrote to them following his last appearance:

“While I cannot comment on individual employment matters, I can confirm that I have never been made aware of allegations by civil servants of inappropriate actions by special advisers.”

As Scrapbook reported last month, one of Gove’s former ministers has turned on him after being sacked from the education brief. Tim Loughton has asked a string of forensic parliamentary questions after a departmental source briefed The Spectator that he was a “lazy incompetent narcissist”.

Loughton has continued to stalk his former boss, tabling a number of further questions, such as:

“what specific instructions and guidance he has issued on guarding against breaches of the Civil Service code regarding personal comments and briefings against individuals; if he will publish any such instructions and guidance; and if he will make a statement.”

None of these have been answered, however.

MPs can be restrained in their questioning by what they “officially know”. In a breathtakingly arrogant response to the committee calling him to give further evidence, Gove facetiously told them he was “available tomorrow”. It looks as though the education secretary is desperate appear MPs before they got their hands on more answers to Loughton’s questions.

And the figure that signs off on answers to those Parliamentary questions? Dominic Cummings — one of Gove’s advisers accused of bullying in the payout case.

Committee recalls Michael Gove over claims he misled Parliament

1:36pm Wed February 27th

Add a comment

Michael Gove is being recalled by the Education Select Committee to answer claims that he misled Parliament in relation to claims of bullying by his staff. Special adviser Dominic Cummings and his hand-picked head of communications James Frayne were involved in a grievance case in which a member of staff was given a £25,000 settlement.

Appearing before the Committee in January, Gove said he was unaware of “previous allegations about SpAds acting inappropriately”:

“I am not omniscient, but I have seen no evidence of that.”

Gove then followed this up with a letter pre-empting MPs making further enquiries on this front — but according to LabourList, this simply “pissed off” the committee:

“While I cannot comment on individual employment matters, I can confirm that I have never been made aware of allegations by civil servants of inappropriate actions by special advisers.”

“It is not usual practice for ministers to be informed of individual grievances by members of staff, particularly if those grievances are not upheld.”

The issue of what Gove knew and when was at the heart of questions asked in Parliament by one of his former ministers — who has now turned against him. As Scrapbook reported yesterday, Tim Loughton tabled two written questions targeting Gove and Cummings.

This could get very messy.

Blue on blue: former education minister turns on Michael Gove

1:20pm Tue February 26th

1 comment

Former education minister Tim Loughton has turned on his former boss Michael Gove, tabling written parliamentary questions designed to unseat his special adviser Dominic Cummings.

Controversial aide Cummings, who Scrapbook revealed on Friday was being hung out to dry by an exasperated 10 Downing Street, is a leading suspect for the “senior Department for Education source” who briefed the Spectator that Loughton was a “lazy incompetent narcissist”.

But with a former member of DfE staff receiving a £25,000 payout in the wake of a grievance procedure involving Cummings it looks like Loughton is going on the offensive, using parliamentary machinery to quiz the department:

(1) how many formal complaints his Department has received about the conduct of special advisers in his Department since May 2010 from (a) other members of staff, (b) officials from other departments and (c) members of the public;

(2) how many formal grievance procedures by staff have taken place in his Department in each of the last five years;

(3) how many grievance procedures by staff in his Department have resulted in payments to those staff in each of the last five years; and what the size of each such payment was.

Despite the sizeable payout, the media have been briefed that an internal investigation in the department “cleared” Cummings of wrongdoing. Loughton also tabled a second question probing the reporting procedures:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the procedure is for reporting (a) grievance procedures and (b) payoffs resulting from grievance procedures to his Department’s Education Board; and on which dates these matters were referred to in papers circulated to the Board or discussed at the Board.

This could get very messy indeed. The last thing any secretary of state wants on the backbenches is a former minister with an axe to grind.

Ironically, one of Loughton’s final duties as a minister was to fend off a forensic written question from Tom Watson on the topic of Michael Gove’s departmental mobile phone.

The gamekeeper has turned poacher.

10 Downing Street moves against Michael Gove team

4:40pm Fri February 22nd

2 comments

Senior political journalists have been told that 10 Downing Street will not stand in the way should they look to unseat one of Michael Gove’s top team. Special adviser Dominic Cummings has become a lightning rod for controversy — his latest dalliance with negative headlines came this week after emails emerged in which he suggested a journalist needed therapy.

The charge sheet against Gove’s team as a whole would be more than enough to scalp a special adviser if aspects can be linked to a particular individual:

A vicious negative briefing against a former Tory education minister, who was described to The Spectator as “lazy incompetent narcissist obsessed only with self-promotion.”
Ownership of the @ToryEducation Twitter account, used to bombard journalists and others with abuse
A £25,000 payout to a civil servant in the wake of bullying claims
Gove’s team have also been linked to the @SteveHiltonGuru Twitter account — which has abeen used to attack a string of figures across Westminster including David Cameron’s chief of staff Ed Llewellyn.

Scrapbook understands hacks were briefed after finally exhausting the patience of a group of senior Cameron aides, who are of the settled view that Cummings is a “complete liability”. The group, which is thought to include director of communications Craig Oliver and former head of press Henry McCrory, who still works for the Tories on an informal basis, are apparently “making enquiries within government about Cummings’ conduct with a view to having him fired”.

After manifold breaches of the special advisers code across government, it looks as though some blood may finally be spilt.

Michael Gove as children’s TV show puppet Pob (reprise)

11:37am Fri February 8th

3 comments

It was way back in 2009 when Scrapbook pointed out that Michael Gove bore a striking resemblance to the children’s TV puppet (and ancestor of The Teletubbies) Pob.

Michael Gove and Pob

From the looks of Patrick Blower’s cartoon in the Telegraph this morning, we’re pleased to see this notion has gained traction.

Video: Watch Pob in action and judge for yourself »

Tag Archives: michael gove

Follow us on Twitter