Boris Johnson was warned by senior Tories not to listen to Michael Gove regarding Covid policy. This is because he may have been pressing too hard to restrict Omicron.
Current and former Ministers singled out the Levelling Up Secretary as a ‘dangerous force’ inside the Government after Mr Johnson suffered the biggest Commons rebellion of his premiership and lost the North Shropshire by-election earlier this month.
Privately warning the Prime Minister, many have urged him not to depend on Mr Gove. They also urged him to get his advisers out of government.
Senior Tories have warned Boris Johnson to quit listening to Michael Gove about Covid policies amid concern that Johnson is pushing for Omicron restrictions too strongly.
One senior Conservative MP described Mr Gove as the ringleader of pro-lockdown Ministers and said: ‘There are a lot of my colleagues who think Mr Gove has become a very dangerous force within the Cabinet.’
One Cabinet Minister also branded him ‘the octopus’ because he gets so involved in the matters of others in Government.
MPs point to Mr Gove’s personal relationship with the Prime Minister to explain his influence on Covid policy.
One said: ‘Gove makes him feel comfortable. Boris trusts him, and he think he’s the one who delivers.’
But the MP added: ‘Boris needs to stop listening to Gove. Don’t trust anyone who has made you feel like you are being stabbed in the back.
‘Caesar killed everyone who crossed him but forgave Brutus – and Brutus killed him.’
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Mr Gove was a consistent pro-lockdown member of Cabinet.
Privately, some have warned the Prime Minister not to rely on Mr Gove and asked him to remove advisers close to Gove from the heart of government
One insider said: ‘He took such a strong position on restrictions during the first and second waves that it is ingrained in him that this is what we need to do.’
Last night an ally of Mr Gove rejected the criticism, saying: ‘Yes Boris speaks to Michael – because he’s the most effective Cabinet Minister. What’s the point?
‘But Michael is not seeing the data, he’s not in the quad [of senior Ministers]. There is a limit to what he can do on this.’