Michael Gove was the most consequential minister of the 14 years of Conservative government. It could be argued that, without him, Britain would have stayed in the European Union: he paved the way for Boris Johnson to lead the Leave campaign in the referendum. And, despite having twice stood unsuccessfully for the party leadership, he also had a substantial record as a reforming minister at education, justice and levelling-up.
As the editor of The Spectator, he will continue to be influential in Tory politics, so it was worth hearing what he had to say on Thursday, to the students that I teach at King’s College London, when he gave this term’s final class in the “Conservative Years” module taught by Dr Jack Brown.
