I want my war with Michael Gove war to end - David Cameron

David Cameron today extends an olive branch to Michael Gove, saying he wants to try to rekindle the close friendship that was blown apart by Brexit.

In his autobiography, which is published today, the former prime minister savages Mr Gove for his decision to back the Leave campaign in 2016 which finished his career in No 10.

But Mr Cameron now says ‘a lot of water has flown under the bridge’ since the pair’s spectacular public fallout.

But in an interview to be broadcast on radio station LBC today, he also hits out at the Left-wing Guardian newspaper for a controversial editorial this week which claimed the anguish of his son Ivan’s death had been softened by his privileged background. In his autobiography, For the Record, Mr Cameron accuses Mr Gove of betrayal. He said he was shocked by the ‘ferocity and mendacity’ of his attacks on the Government during the campaign, accusing him of becoming ‘an ambassador for the post-truth age’.

The row severed a close friendship between the Gove and Cameron families which extended well beyond politics and saw the two families share the school run and holiday together.

But Mr Cameron suggests he is ready to bury the hatchet with his former friend.

He says he was moved by a heartfelt article by Mr Gove’s wife, Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, in which she lamented the breakdown of a 20-year friendship between the two families. Writing in the Mail yesterday, she described how the two families had shared their lives together for two decades but had not spoken since Brexit tore them apart in February 2016.

Miss Vine, godmother to the Camerons’ daughter Florence, describes them as ‘dear friends who were there at key moments of my life’. She added: ‘Hard as these past few years have been, nothing will ever erase those memories. Because that is what really matters: people. Not politics, not power, not Brexit.

Asked about her comments, Mr Cameron says: ‘I was coming back from my book launch with Samantha and it popped up on my screen, and we both read it, and we both actually thought it was incredibly sensitive and well written and rather emotional piece.

‘Look, over time I hope that – a lot of water has flown under the bridge – but it just was very difficult at the time of the referendum.’

Asked if he would like to rekindle the relationship, he replied: ‘I want to try. I think the difficulty has just been that, Michael was a very, very close member of the team. He was so central to my thinking on education reform and other things, and so watching what happened next was very painful and I did in some ways thought he’d become quite a different person in all of it. But as I say, life goes on.’

‘We make mistakes and we move on. Or at least we should try.’

Source – https://www.dailymail.co.uk