Ex-Minister Michael Gove Backs Rishi Sunak in UK Tory Leadership Race

The race for the position of leader of the British Conservatives and successor to the resigned Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reaching its climax. After the fifth round of voting in late July, the two remaining candidates for the position of prime minister are former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Former British government cabinet minister and incumbent MP Michael Gove has endorsed Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson as the next leader of the Conservative Party and the UK prime minister, while also accusing Liz Truss of taking a "holiday from reality."

In a Friday op-ed in the Times, Gove said that cutting taxes was not the solution to the rising cost-of-living crisis.

"I am deeply concerned that the framing of the leadership debate by many has been a holiday from reality," he said. "The answer to the cost-of-living crisis cannot be simply to reject further 'handouts' and cut tax."

However, whoever the next prime minister is, Gove also stated he would not be getting back into the political fray, while expressing his support for Sunak.

"I do not expect to be in government again. But it was the privilege of my life to spend 11 years in the cabinet under three prime ministers," he wrote. "I know what the job requires. And Rishi has it."

The proposed national insurance cutbacks, he continued, "would favour the wealthy, and changes to corporation tax apply to big businesses, not small entrepreneurs."

"I cannot see how safeguarding the stock options of FTSE 100 executives should ever take precedence over supporting the poorest in our society, but at a time of want it cannot be the right priority," he asserted.

Gove added that he did not think Truss' "prospectus is the right answer for the world we face" after initially supporting Kemi Badenoch in the early rounds of the leadership election.

According to him, "it does not address the fundamental problems of potential neglected, productivity suppressed and the vulnerable suffering the most."

"A bandwagon is clattering down Whitehall with eager new adherents clambering aboard," the former leveling-up secretary wrote, while also criticizing his Conservative colleagues who have supported Truss.

Additionally, Gove noted there is "neither the money to build them nor the evidence they advance social mobility" in reference to Truss' proposal to remove the ban on grammar schools, which she claims will offer parents the option to send their children there.

According to Sky News, a representative for the Sunak campaign enthusiastically accepted Gove's endorsement, adding, "Delighted to have the support of a party and Cabinet veteran who has intellectual heft and shown the radical reforming zeal in every job he has had, that we now so desperately need."

In early July, after telling Johnson to resign as prime minister before actually doing so, Gove was fired from his position as leveling-up secretary.

According to a recent YouGov/Sky News poll, published on Thursday, more than 65% of UK Conservative Party members intend to vote for Truss to become the next UK prime minister and Tory leader.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak reportedly only has 34% support, with 13% of Conservatives still undecided on their vote.