Those hoping they had seen the last of Michael Gove when he announced he would not be standing in the general election were soon disappointed. Days after abandoning his Surrey Heath seat to the mounting challenge from the Lib Dems, up Gove popped as the Conservative Party’s chief spin doctor after ITV’s Sunak vs Starmer debate.

With considerably more eloquence than either leader, Gove was at his bloviating best explaining – on all channels, and against obvious evidence – that the debate “exploded Keir Starmer’s claim to be a credible candidate for prime minister”. Gove, who made a disastrous late bid for the job himself in 2016, should know about that.

What is Gove up to? What is the game plan now for a man who has been a colourful member of Conservative governments for all but two of the last 14 years? Is he in or out? i readers may remember that a few weeks ago I asked “What is the point of Michael Gove?” His recent behaviour makes him a greater enigma than ever.

Who better to ask than the man himself? I got the chance when we bumped into each other at the tail end of a flashy business reception. Typically he was happy to talk on the record. No contemporaneous notes were taken, as we juggled glasses and canapes, so I can only convey the gist of our conversation.

Gove set himself up as Sunak’s shill in the Salford media centre hub “because Isaac asked me”. That would be Isaac Levido, the........

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