Gove to be education secretary

Michael Gove, has been appointed as the new schools secretary. It has not yet been revealed whether the department will be split between education and children and families. Although some informed sources have suggested there will be no change, the No. 10 website refers to Gove as secretary of state for education.

Former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clark has also been announced as the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, taking on the brief of youth justice and it is rumoured that Iain Duncan Smith may be appointed as work and pensions secretary.

Gove was closely involved with the negotiations that forged the deal with the Liberal Democrats, although not part of the negotiating team.

He has historically had a good relationship with the Liberal Democrat portfolio holder, David Laws, and was seen to help the progress during negotiations on a coalition, when he said he would be happy for Laws to take his job. However, Laws has now been made chief secretary to the Treasury.

Gove has largely focused on the schools agenda and in a speech to the Royal Society of Arts last year suggested that schools had lost their principal purpose and “been saddled with a host of supplementary roles since the creation of the DCSF” leading to speculation he would split the department if the Tories took power.

There is no word yet on junior ministers or the fate of former shadow children’s minsiter Tim Laughton, who devised the majority of Tory policy around children’s social work.

Gove worked as a journalist at the Times following the campaign of Frances Lawrence, widow of the murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence, to fight street crime and its causes. He is also a former chairman of Policy Exchange, a centre-right think tank, which developed much of the Tory thinking about devolving power from government to frontline workers and communities.

Related articles

Election 2010

Join the debate in CareSpace