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The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
How not to be a politician's wife, from someone who knows
'Tell your dad that if he doesn't do (an unspecified act) he won't live to see you turn 19.' Ms Vine was married at this point to the former Conservative Cabinet Minister and top Brexiter Michael Gove. Towards the end of her new book How Not to be a Political Wife, she recounts another incident. This was when police told her that both she and Mr Gove had been primary targets for Ali Harbi Ali, the Islamist extremist who had murdered the Conservative MP, David Amess in 2021. Analysis of his phone revealed he'd been stalking both of them on their daily routines for a week before targeting Mr Amess. I wouldn't previously have considered interviewing Sarah Vine. For starters, she's the star columnist on another newspaper, the Daily Mail. She also belonged to the fabled Notting Hill set, whose gilded existence in the orbit of David and Samantha Cameron in the early 2000s was from a distant galaxy, not far enough away. I'd been irked though, by a piously dismissive account of her book in a left-wing magazine which lacked professional respect. Ms Vine is routinely voted Columnist of the Year in the UK press awards. And besides, when all of next year's books are published to mark the 10th anniversary of Brexit, hers can be regarded as an essential part of its first draft. Few will convey the human drama of this one. She was married to Brexit; she lived in it; she fed and watered it and – in the end – it mangled her and spat her out. We meet in Kensington, a beautiful part of my second favourite city where the houses fetch prices that would choke the economies of small states. The hidden drama of Brexit and the toll it exacted of Sarah Vine's life and marriage unravelled in these avenues and alleyways. I suggest that some of this is rooted in how women are treated in the political world and especially those who are considered to be right-wing. 'One of the points I try to make is about the process of dehumanisation and about not being seen as a real person. I write for the Mail and was married to a Tory. In some people's eyes, that means my opinion doesn't count.' Ms Vine has worked in every cranny and crevice of the old print media production churn: fetching and carrying; sub-editing and commissioning. She's time-served. 'The people who hate you the most are often those who haven't read anything you've written,' she says. 'I wanted to reclaim my own narrative a little. Women who identify to the right in politics do seem to experience an extra layer of sexism. Women are much less confrontational than men. Most of my female friends are either Labour or Lib-Dem. 'Many aren't as interested in politics as men. And so, the path of least resistance is to be a kind leftie because they're the ones who want to help people and to build an equal society. 'If you're to the right, people say: 'What's wrong with you? You're meant to be nice and kind and nurturing. It goes back to Margaret Thatcher, I think. For all that she was talented and a memorable politician, she had a reputation for being cruel. People couldn't understand how she seemed able to set aside the human collateral of her policies.' (Image: PAUL STUART) As one of the Notting Hill set, she describes a gilded world of dinner parties spent with a privileged cast of boulevardiers who were either running the country or awaiting their turn. From up here, it looked exhausting, like having to run up a down elevator. 'It really was,' she says. 'These were fabulously intelligent and charismatic people who were at the centre of influence and making a difference. It was very full-on. The constant of round of dinner parties, though I like cooking, which helped. Plus, I was a social person. It was at a time when you have small children and you're accustomed to running around and when you have the energy and the ambition to do so. 'There was a sense too of being in it together. Life is about finding your tribe, isn't it? And I felt I had my tribe. And then I lost my tribe and became isolated.' It was on Brexit's threshing floor where her existence at the Tories' high table began to fade. This was when her husband, Michael Gove enraged the Camerons and their acolytes by signalling he'd be joining the Brexit camp. It was only then that they both learned what happens when those who are considered low-born refuse to yield to the aristocrats who pull the levers of Toryism. Read more: Kevin McKenna: 'This is the most Scottish moment in my entire life' Kevin McKenna: A glimpse into the darkness at the heart of the Scottish Government Kevin McKenna: Fake liberals wage war on Scotland's poorest and most vulnerable folk Kevin McKenna: Sorry Mr Swinney, this isn't Full-on John. This is John of the Dead Though she and Mr Gove are now divorced, she speaks about him fondly and you sense that she'll always love him. Whenever events call for criticism of him, she leavens it with fond mitigations. Nor does she spare herself. Like other elegant and handsome women, she talks about her perceived physical flaws: hair loss; weight issues. Men, even in our moth-eaten decrepitude, just sally forth regardless. There's very little bitterness in her book, nor in our conversation. What little there is though, is reserved for the Tory aristocracy. 'I don't have any natural class instincts,' she says. 'I grew up in Italy, which has no class system. I didn't understand the British class system. I don't understand how someone can be considered better if they have a large house and not a smaller one. I'm a journalist and journalism is the ultimate outsider's profession. You can't be obsessed with status and deference. 'I consider myself to be Eurotrash, basically I grew up round Europe. (Her parents had moved to Italy when she was a child). Michael though, comes from a Presbyterian, Aberdonian fishing community and with all the rectitude that comes with this. He had transcended that by going to Oxford. 'That's why he felt education was so important. His way to a different place was via education. It's not that he was living in squalor: he had a lovely upbringing. At Oxford though, he experienced a melting-pot where you had the children of baronets and the children of fishermen. 'When Michael became Lord Chancellor and in charge of prisons, he saw this as an extension of his mission to improve the lives of those less fortunate. That, if you've missed people the first time round and they'd fallen through the cracks in education and end up in jail,society can still offer them second chances. 'If he'd stayed there, he'd have done great work.' Then came the Brexit referendum in 2016 when David Cameron, pumped up with adrenalin on securing victory in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, made the biggest political misjudgment in modern British history since the Suez crisis. In calling for a referendum on Europe, he staked his career and the future of the Tories. And, having set the stakes so high, he had a patrician expectation of absolute loyalty from his friends. There was no room for sincerely-held beliefs. Within the close-knit Notting Hill set, her friendship with Sam Cameron was tighter still: a scared thing as close friendships are. Brexit took its toll on that too and she mourns its passing as intensely as the end of her marriage. She is godmother to one of the Camerons' children. She recalls a moment in a lift with David Cameron not long after Michael Gove, a career-long Euro-sceptic, has become a lead Brexiteer. 'You have to get your husband off the airwaves,' Mr Cameron hissed at her. 'You have to get him under control. For f**k sake, Sarah, I'm fighting for my political life here. This was followed by an emotional public outburst to the same effect by Sam Cameron'. It signalled the end of a friendship Ms Vine mistakenly believed had proceeded on an equal basis. It was a moment of truth for her. 'It was the realisation that they genuinely believed that they were much more important than us. I don't think it's intentional by their tribe. It's just how they're raised. If you're from a working-class background, or a middle class one, everyone tells you that you need to prove yourself; to justify your existence; to sink or swim. To work hard if you want to make your way in the world. If you come from their background, all you experience is deference.' This may be so, but Ms Vine also reveals in her book that in this world there exist aftershaves called Penhaligon's English Fern and Blenheim Bouquet. I want them, just so that I can say their names out loud if anyone asks me. How Not to be a Political Wife by Sarah Vine (HarperElement £20)
Belfast Telegraph
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Tory minister's teenage daughter received sinister death threat birthday card from NI after Brexit
Michael Gove's family was targeted after warning daubed on wall in Londonderry. Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove was notified of a threat from Derry in the wake of Brexit. His ex-wife Sarah Vine has told how a warning daubed on a wall was followed by hate mail targeting their teenage daughter sent to their London home.
Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Michael Gove kicks off over Breakfast and hosts' ‘inner Paxmans'
Things are not happy at Breakfast. Not only is the BBC morning show engulfed in controversy, but it has now been described as 'the worst news outlet in the country' by one of its former guests. 'You can tell the presenters are unhappy that they're not presenting the Today programme,' said the former minister Michael Gove at a Spectator event, 'so they summon up their inner Paxman.' Gove added that he was 'exasperated with the stupidity of the questions' and that 'the worst thing is people who think that they're good and want to have big personalities and possess neither'. The programme might be happy to have got under a politician's skin, but the words are still harsh. Then again, if the complaints of bullying at the show are accurate, they might be used to such things. It was a rare moment of rage from Gove on a night when he was on stage with his ex-wife Sarah Vine to promote her book. Those expecting dirty laundry to be aired were disappointed as the two were wonderfully kind to each other — perhaps with good reason. Fellow panellist Lord Swire said the whole evening was an attempt to sell copies of Vine's book and thereby 'reduce Michael's alimony'. The formerly-weds were on such good terms that someone in the audience said their divorce was the most amicable since 'the Duke and Duchess of York' — an especially unflattering comparison for Gove, which Vine immediately rubbished. 'Michael sweats,' she said. • Michael Gove on divorce, gay rumours, dating and the Camerons The government has quite literally gone dotty. There has been a seemingly needless rebrand of the website and someone has decided to make a big thing of the 'dot' in that address. It is thought that the dot is now a symbol of the government, but it is difficult to confirm this as the guidance on the rebrand doesn't appear to be written in English. The guidance, which is longer than the Strategic Defence Review, says: 'Our dot is the bridge between government and the UK' and is a 'guiding hand for life'. This enterprise cost £500,000, or 2,667 weeks of personal independence payments. MPs have little time to be aspiring statesmen as they are overwhelmed with local casework, but this can lead to a moment of note. For instance, Peter Swallow (Lab, Bracknell), raised his constituents' concerns after some wildlife had been run over in the area. It was charming to see a Swallow stand up for geese. You expect some journalists to have used hallucinogenic drugs, but not Matthew Parris, still of this parish. However, in characteristically polite style, he was only doing it to fit in with the locals. He tells Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? that it happened in the Amazon, where he partook of a 'poisoned tree frog'. 'You just go crazy,' he said. 'First I couldn't stand up, then I couldn't sit down.' His hosts sat under trees and saw the mysteries of the universe, while Parris dreamt that Denis Thatcher was telling him to get into the boot of Mrs Thatcher's car. Only an ex-Tory MP could go to the Amazon and see a Jaguar which wasn't a cat.
Spectator
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The Spectator presents: Living with a Politician
Exclusive to subscribers, watch our latest event Living with a Politician live. Join Sarah Vine, (author of How Not to Be a Political Wife), with Michael Gove, Rachel Johnson (author of Rake's Progress, her own odyssey as a political candidate) and Hugo Swire (whose wife Sasha wrote the bestselling Diary of an MP's Wife) as they discuss the losses and laughter involved in being married to politics. This event will be live from 7.00pm on Monday 30 June.
Telegraph
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Michael Gove: I'm not gay, despite the rumours
Michael Gove has addressed rumours about his sexuality, confirming that he is not gay. Lord Gove said people 'like the idea that anyone in public life will have a kink or secret of some kind', but that the rumours he was gay were untrue. Asked by The Times whether he had ever kissed a boy, the former Tory Cabinet minister said: 'No… except my son', adding that he found the speculation 'hilarious'. It comes after Sarah Vine, his ex-wife, wrote a memoir that included details of her relationship with him and her experience in Conservative Party circles. The couple were close friends with David Cameron, the former prime minister, and his wife Samantha in the 2000s and 2010s, until they fell out during Brexit. Lord Gove and Ms Vine split up in 2021 after 20 years of marriage. They have two children together. Ms Vine has said there was 'so much gossip' about her ex-husband's sexuality, because of his 'quite camp' persona and his several gay friends and colleagues. He also lived in a flat in Mayfair with Ivan Massow, a multi-millionaire financier and gay rights campaigner, and Nick Boles, a former Conservative MP, which attracted further speculation. Asked about the rumours, the former levelling up secretary said: 'I also think people like the idea anyone in public life will have a kink or secret of some kind. 'So everyone from Peter Lilley to the current PM has had rumours spread about them, and this was one that latched on to me. I find it hilarious. But any protestation sounds like you're trying to cover something up.' Since splitting with Ms Vine, Lord Gove has started dating Dr Lola Salem, a 32-year-old music lecturer at Oxford University. A mutual friend of the pair told The Times that Dr Salem is 'even more combative and Right-wing than Michael'. The relationship moved into the public domain after a photograph was taken of Lord Gove and Dr Salem kissing in the J Sheekey fish restaurant in London. Addressing the incident, he said: 'In my mind, the street is sniper's alley. But in a restaurant, you expect a certain amount of politeness.' Before getting together with Dr Salem, the former politician told The Times he had tried using the Bumble dating app. He told how he had to prove to one woman on the app that it really was him behind the profile, taking a photograph of himself holding up the day's newspaper. Lord Gove described the experience as 'fascinating… the pictures people choose, the descriptions they give themselves'. The former Cabinet minister had dated Tory peer Baroness Finn, then known as Simone Kubes, and the historian Amanda Foreman before marrying Ms Vine. Lord Gove is now the editor of The Spectator magazine, having worked as a journalist before he entered politics. He has cut a divisive figure in the Conservative Party over his career, which spanned five prime ministers. Lord Cameron described him in his autobiography as 'mendacious' after falling out with him over Brexit, and said that in him 'one quality shone through – disloyalty'. Asked about his friendship with Lord Cameron and whether it was over, Lord Gove told The Times: 'Impaired, which is sort of a euphemism. Not the same, and I can completely understand why. 'He felt he'd earned the right, as the captain, to expect members of the team to recognise it was better for us all to hang together.'
