To instantly understand what this election means for the Conservative party, look no further than the departing Tory politician who has been centrally involved in most of the lurches, victories and meltdowns of the past 14 years. A lot of Michael Gove’s record is bound up with the David Cameron years, and a retrogressive transformation in English education that is still rippling through our schools. But as he exits frontline politics, the most relevant stories are about his support for Brexit, leaning in to brazen populism, and overseeing the non-policy of levelling up. In all those things lie the biggest reasons for the ruling party’s deepening crisis – and, poetically enough, why the Liberal Democrats fancy their chances in Surrey Heath, the constituency Gove is leaving behind.

Like so many of his colleagues, Gove must be acutely aware of the Conservatives’ dire predicament. The election has been called because they no longer have any kind of governing project. Their internal affairs remain febrile and poisonous. And when polling stations and ballot papers come into view, their biggest problem is likely to be revealed with a new clarity: a coalition of support that has long since sprouted cracks and fissures, but now looks like it is turning into rubble.

How quickly things have changed. In 2016, the presence of Gove and Boris Johnson at the heart of the leave campaign arguably secured its era-defining success. Three years later, Johnson led his party to such a momentous win in the general election that there was talk of a lasting political realignment, whereby working-class Labour voters would completely........

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