MICHAEL Gove has hailed Douglas Ross as a political “super heavyweight” after the Scottish Tory leader was dismissed as a “lightweight” by a Cabinet minister.
Jacob Rees-Mogg made the comment about Ross after the Moray MP called for the Prime Minister to resign over the partygate scandal.
Gove himself also appeared to mock the Scottish Conservative chief, stating Ross was “in Elgin, and the national Tory leader is in London”.
But the Cabinet minister has now launched a charm offensive, claiming both he and Boris Johnson are big admirers of the Scottish Tory leader.
“Well, in my opinion, Douglas is a super heavyweight,” he told BBC Good Morning Scotland (GMS) after being asked about Rees-Mogg’s remarks.
“Douglas Ross is a friend of mine,” Gove said. “He is a brilliant leader of the Scottish Conservatives. He does a fantastic job, not just in Westminster where he helps to hold government to account, but also in Holyrood.”
The Levelling Up Secretary stopped short of telling Rees-Mogg (above) to apologise for the insult, however. “I can only speak for myself in this regard, and I think that Douglas has assembled a top rate team in Holyrood,” Gove stated.
Pressed again to urged his Cabinet colleague to apologise, he replied: “I never invite other people to apologise. If I make a mistake, I apologise myself.”
He continued: “And speaking for myself, and I know for the Prime Minister as well, we think Douglas is a fantastic champion for Scotland. He holds the First Minister rigorously to account and he has the right policy agenda for the future of Scotland.”
The Levelling Up Secretary concluded: “We should be, as a Conservative team, recognising that we are stronger together, stronger together as a United Kingdom, stronger together as one Conservative family.”
Asked later by STV about his own Elgin jibe to Ross, Gove insisted he was merely making a "geographical point". He added: "Sometimes when people ask silly questions they get smart alec answers. That was me then."
BBC Radio Scotland also quizzed Gove about fresh partygate allegations against the Prime Minister, who is accused of attending several more events that the Met police are investigating.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson faces new partygate claims as Cummings warns of 'photographic evidence'
Gove said he was “100%” behind his boss, who he insisted is a “great Prime Minister”.
“I've been working with him for more than two years now,” Gove said. “I've seen how, at the height of the pandemic, he was laser-focused on making sure that we could get the vaccines that we needed.”
The host took issue with the assertion that the Tory leader was “laser-focused”, pointing out that there were at least 16 parties on Downing Street during lockdown, 12 of which are being investigated by the police, some of which the PM is believed to have attended.
Gove replied: “The Met quite rightly are going to investigate these allegations. The press quite rightly reported what they've heard. The Met will conclude that investigation and then we can then make a judgement about who did what.”
The senior Conservative also insisted his government would make no apologies for blowing almost £10 billion on PPE supplies that ended up going to waste. Newly published accounts for the UK Department of Health and Social Care reveal £8.7bn spent by the UK Government on PPE during the pandemic has been written off.
“I don't make any apology for the fact that we did everything possible to secure PPE for folk on the front line,” he told GMS. “Again, we work with every government across the UK at the time when there was a global race for PPE. Yes, high prices were paid but they were being paid by everyone.”
READ MORE: Keir Starmer, Jimmy Savile, and the Tories' 'move towards disinformation'
Earlier, the Levelling Up Secretary also said his boss would make no apologies over his discredited claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
Gove told Sky News: “I think this is a uniquely sensitive issue and it does need to be handled with care, and I listen with enormous respect to those who act for victims of the actions of a terrible, terrible criminal.
“But – and it’s not a subject that I want to dwell on because it is uniquely sensitive – it is the case that the CPS apologised for the handling of this case and what happened in 2009, and I think we should acknowledge that an apology was given at the time and respect that.”
He added: “Keir Starmer acknowledged that mistakes had been made by the organisation of which he was head, to his credit. He was very clear about those mistakes.”
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