Gove repeated at his launch that he deeply regretted his past drug use and asked that he be judged on his performance in government. Last March, Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick said that middle-class drug users had “blood on their hands” in the context of London’s drug-related knife crime epidemic, which has killed almost 30 young people already this year. If Gove’s campaign is faltering, one beneficiary appears to be foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is presenting himself as a serious, experienced master of detail who is ready to be prime minister. But with more publicly declared support from MPs than any other candidate, it is difficult to see how Johnson will not be one of the final two. If Gove’s candidacy is fatally damaged, Johnson’s most formidable potential adversary will be removed from the field, taking the former foreign secretary another step closer to Downing Street.

Source: The Irish Times June 10, 2019 19:41 UTC