Letter: My MP Michael Gove Won’t Answer My Brexit Letter

Published on: 31 Oct, 2016
Updated on: 31 Oct, 2016

From David Reading

Mr Michael Gove, MP for Surrey Heath, was once a pen pal of mine.

Michael Gove MP. Image from his own website.

I have written to him about various subjects – the NHS, Syria, the threat to the BBC – and he has always replied promptly.

I would imagine this is what all good MPs do if letters come from people in their constituencies. I live in the village of Ash, which is within Mr Gove’s constituency of Surrey Heath.

Five days after the EU Referendum I wrote to Mr Gove asking him about that promise painted on the side of the Brexit battlebus: “We send the EU £350 million a week. Let’s fund our NHS instead.”

I wanted to know what Mr Gove, a chief Brexiteer, was doing to ensure the pledge was honoured. Mr Gove had repeatedly appeared on platforms with the promise as the main backdrop. I received no reply so I wrote again on October 2. Still no reply.

The truth is, it must be a difficult letter to reply to, now that the battlebus promise has been shown to be an empty gimmick. I picture poor Mr Gove sitting in the glow of his computer in the early hours, gulping down cups of coffee, desperately trying to think up an excuse that would keep me happy, writing draft after draft but getting nowhere.

Someone in the Leave gang has said the statement about funding the NHS wasn’t a promise but “a possibility”. Perhaps Mr Gove is too sensible to try that one on me.

Perhaps deep down he would like to come clean and admit that someone in the Brexit PR department had convinced everyone that you don’t have to tell the truth. You just have to work on people’s emotions.

Responses to Letter: My MP Michael Gove Won’t Answer My Brexit Letter

Stuart Barnes Reply

November 1, 2016 at 8:12 am

Will you be writing to Cameron about his claim that voting to get our country back would bring on World War Three or any of the other desperate lies told by the remainers?
John Perkins Reply

November 1, 2016 at 12:00 pm

How can such a pledge be honoured while the UK is still actually a member of the EU?

The question has little meaning until withdrawal is complete.

Besides which, Mr Gove has the obvious excuse that he doesn’t have much power at the moment.
David Roberts Reply

November 2, 2016 at 12:04 pm

Don’t be so unkind. Mr Gove has been busy elsewhere:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/gove-left-wife-in-hotel-to-go-out-partying-with-11-year-old-son-20161031116281
Jim Allen Reply

November 4, 2016 at 5:50 pm

It’s all in the wording and the reading. ‘Lets’ is a suggestion nothing more nothing less.

So while I agree with the sentiment, a lot of money was spent on these people’s edumacation so they understand the difference between ‘should and shall’ ‘might and will’.

While my education never cost half as much, (my parents couldn’t afford to send me to public school) I am still expected to know the difference and not expected to get upset when I miss these little words from the understanding.

All politicians are only ‘word smiths’ and you must find two opposing politicians saying exactly the same thing before you believe any one of them.