Michael Gove

Michael Andrew Gove, Baron Gove (/ɡoʊv/; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician and journalist. A member of the House of Lords since May 2025, he previously held senior Cabinet positions in Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath from 2005 to 2024, during which he twice returned to the backbenches. He was a prominent figure in the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union and stood for the Conservative leadership on two occasions. Gove has been editor of The Spectator since 2024.

Born in Aberdeen, Gove was in care until being adopted aged four months old, after which he was raised in the Kittybrewster area of the city. He attended the independent Robert Gordon's College and studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He then began a career as a journalist at The Press and Journal before having a long tenure as a leader writer at The Times. Elected for Surrey Heath at the 2005 general election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Education in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. He terminated the previous Labour government's Building Schools for the Future programme, reformed A-Level and GCSE qualifications in favour of final examinations, and responded to the Trojan Horse scandal. Four teachers unions passed motions of no confidence in his policies at their 2013 conferences.

In the 2014 cabinet reshuffle, he was moved to the post of Government Chief Whip. Following the 2015 general election and the formation of the majority Cameron government, Gove was promoted to Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. As the co-convenor of Vote Leave, Gove was seen, along with Boris Johnson, as one of the most prominent figures of the 2016 EU membership referendum. He was campaign manager for Johnson in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election but withdrew his support on the morning Johnson was due to declare and announced his own candidacy, finishing behind Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom.

Upon the appointment of May as prime minister, Gove was dismissed from the Cabinet but joined the second May government as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs following the 2017 general election. In his second leadership bid, in 2019, Gove finished behind Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. Following Johnson's victory, Gove was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with responsibility for no-deal Brexit preparations. He took on the additional role of Minister for the Cabinet Office in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle and was responsible for coordinating the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, he served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations until telling Johnson to resign during the July 2022 government crisis and being dismissed by Johnson. Under Rishi Sunak, he was reinstated to his previous roles of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. He stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election and was created a life peer in 2025.

Gove was born Graeme Andrew Logan on 26 August 1967. His biological mother, whom he originally understood to have been an unmarried Edinburgh student, was in fact a 23-year-old cookery demonstrator. Gove regarded Edinburgh as his birthplace until it was revealed in a biography in 2019 that he was born in a maternity hospital in Fonthill Road, Aberdeen. Logan was put into care soon after he was born.

At the age of four months he was adopted by a couple in Aberdeen, Ernest and Christine Gove, by whom he was brought up. After he joined the Gove family, Logan's name was changed to Michael Andrew Gove. His adoptive father, Ernest, ran EE Gove and Sons, a fish processing business at Aberdeen Harbour in Torry. Established by Ernest's father, the business was sold by Ernest in the 1980s. Gove's adoptive mother, Christine, was a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen, later working at the Aberdeen School for the Deaf.

Gove, his parents, and his adoptive sister Angela Christine lived in a small property in the Kittybrewster area of Aberdeen, before moving to a residence on Rosehill Drive. He was educated at two state schools (Sunnybank Primary School and Kittybrewster Primary School), and later, on the recommendation of his primary school teacher, he sat and passed the entrance exam for the independent Robert Gordon's College.

At Robert Gordon's, classmates and teachers recalled him as confident and intellectually curious. According to a former teacher, "at the start of every lesson a hand would go up and it would be Michael". He rode an old-fashioned bicycle, wore suits, recited poetry and participated enthusiastically in debates, although he was less strong at sport. Gove later recalled feeling intellectually out of place at home and described himself as a "swot" who asked questions from an early age. In 2012, he wrote an apology letter to his former French teacher for misbehaving in class.