Former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove has said critics’ attacks of his ex-wife Sarah Vine was “the thing that really hurt most” during his political career.

Gove said Vine was “portrayed as a sort of Lady Macbeth figure” as he weighed up backing Boris Johnson for Tory leader, following the Brexit vote in 2016.

He said the “fact she was attacked in that way at a time of turmoil overall was incredibly hurtful”.

Gove – who stood down as an MP ahead of June’s general election – opens up about his most difficult moments in politics on his new BBC Radio 4 series.

In Surviving Politics with Michael Gove, the former education secretary speaks candidly with politicians from different parties about the strengths and skills needed in tough times.

For one episode, Gove interviewed Labour spin doctor and former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson.

Now editor of the Spectator magazine, Gove asked Mandelson what advice he would give new Labour MPs who have entered Parliament following this year’s general election.

“Be very clear what you believe in, what your convictions are, what your project is and what you want to achieve,” Mandelson said.

He then asked Gove: “All sorts of things have happened to you in the course of your political career. If you had to identify one really personal thing that hurt, what was that?”

Gove recalled how in 2016, Vine accidentally sent a private email – meant to be read by him and his close advisors – to a member of the public, who leaked it to the press.

In the email, Vine had advised her husband to get assurances from Johnson “otherwise you cannot guarantee your support” for his leadership bid.

Two days later, Johnson unexpectedly withdrew, after Gove made a surprise attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party.

Gove said his ex-wife, “whom I still love very much”, was “a strong woman” and disputed the comparison to Lady Macbeth.

Gove said: “It’s always fine if you’re being attacked on ground where you think, yeah, I’m happy to defend myself.

“But when it’s a misunderstanding and a misunderstanding that affects someone close to you, that’s particularly difficult.”

He added: “It’s when people seek to construct a narrative and they draw someone else in and that person is collateral damage in an attack on you. It hurts so much.”

Mandelson said he saw “an echo of that in my own life, with my own partner, now husband, when they went for him and they did”.

In the interview, Mandelson said: “I didn’t even think I could necessarily enter Parliament because I was gay.”

He said he lived openly with his partner and was told by people “you’re going to find it very difficult to be selected.

“And it was a struggle and in the 1987 election, which was the first campaign I directed, I was targeted viciously by the News of the World,” he said.

Mandelson talked about internal Labour divisions and the power struggle between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair as they vied for leadership of the party in the 1990s.

In a conversation about “change-makers” in the current Labour government, Mandelson described Health Secretary Wes Streeting as “courageous”.

Mandelson said: “Courageous and foolhardy? Let’s see I don’t see any point in being in politics unless you’re going to be a minister like that.”

He said “if there are others like Wes Streeting, then I’ll certainly be supporting them”.

You can listen to all episodes of Surviving Politics with Michael Gove from Monday 21 October 2024 on BBC Sounds.