Michael Gove to become editor of The Spectator

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Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove has been appointed editor of The Spectator, its publisher said on Wednesday, weeks after hedge fund boss Sir Paul Marshall bought the British conservative magazine for £100mn.

Gove will oversee the magazine, which has traditionally had strong links with the Conservative party, during a new chapter for the weekly title, which started its current run in 1828.

The former education secretary and housing secretary, who stood down from parliament at the general election, previously worked at newspapers including The Times and the Daily Telegraph, as well as the BBC and Channel 4.

Gove was popular among many colleagues in the House of Commons for his witty performances at the despatch box. But he is held in suspicion by some Tories, who accuse him of stabbing his Oxford university friend Boris Johnson in the back when he unexpectedly ran for the Conservative leadership in 2016. 

Back in the cabinet, Gove then told Johnson, who was editor of The Spectator between 1999 and 2005, to resign in 2022, only to be fired by the scandal-hit former prime minister.

Gove joins former Tory chancellor George Osborne — a friend from the Notting Hill set led by former prime minister Lord David Cameron — in leaving politics for journalism.

As editor of The Spectator he will replace Fraser Nelson, who has overseen the digital transformation of the title over the past 15 years. 

Freddie Sayers, the magazine’s publisher, said Nelson would become associate editor and continue to write for the title, while Lord Charles Moore, a former Spectator and Telegraph editor, would become non-executive chair. Moore will replace journalist Andrew Neil. 

Sayers said that “alongside his political and journalistic nous, Michael brings a love of books, philosophy, art, opera — and a mischievous sense of humour”.

Gove will start in the role next month, pending approval from the Whitehall appointments watchdog.

The Spectator has a growing digital operation as well as an events business, and was described by a former editor as “more of a cocktail party than a political party”. It hosts an annual summer party attended by many ministers and backbench MPs.

Nelson said Gove was “the obvious successor . . . he’s a first-class journalist who took a detour into politics, he was my news editor when I was a young reporter at The Times and he first declared his ambition to edit The Spectator in an Aberdeen classroom at the age of seven”. 

Marshall has laid out plans to invest in The Spectator, which he acquired this month with his Old Queen Street Media company after a protracted sales process. It began last summer after the Barclay family lost control of the title due to bad debts owed to Lloyds Banking Group. 

The new owner wants to expand the magazine in North America, where it already has an edition, as well as building its digital subscriptions and adding to its video and podcasts operations.