What four years of Govey as EdSec did to the teaching vote
But was this more down to Dominic Cummings?
With Theresa May’s long term prospects in the job not looking very good there’s a lot of focus in the betting markets on who will succeed her as Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Currently the joint favourites are the ex-Mayor and former Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson and the current environment secretary, Michael Gove.
It is the electoral potency of the latter that this post is about particularly the way he ran Education from 2010 to 2014.
The data from the above two polls in was first published on PB in July 2014 shortly before the reshuffle that cost Michael Gove his job as Education Secretary in Cameron’s cabinet
The polling was by YouGov and although commissioned by the NUT covered all teachers and not just those who were members.
As can be seen there was a whopping decline in the Tory share and a huge increase in those of EdM’s Labour. This was much more than the margin of error.
In many ways the contrast between the two sets of data does not come as a shock because it was fairly well known and widely publicised that Michael Gove had alienated the teachers during his period in charge at the Department for Education. It was widely reported that staff in his office use the term the “blob” to describe those working within education.
Perhaps the relationship between the party and teachers wasn’t helped by the fact one of his senior AIDS was Dominic Cummings who was later to make his name running the leave campaign. A very aggressive individual who was determined to make an impact.
It has been widely reported that Gove got the boot in the 2014 reshuffle on the advice of Lynton Crosby who was influenced the PB post. Maybe
Ir is noticeable that Gove’s period at Justice and Environment have struck very different tone.