Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy event of the week. Each week our staff of educators tries to introduce you to a person of interest in the financial world. This could be a person in government or banking or an important investors or trader.
With Brexit the controlling factor of the marketplace and global attention the new Prime Minister of the UK remains undecided. Last weeks favored replaced from David Cameron was thought to be Boris Johnson, until three hours before his speech to announce his run, he was stabbed in the back by a major supporter and his campaign manager. Former London mayor Boris Johnson abruptly pulled out of the race to become Britain’s prime minister that he was once favored to win, upending the contest less than a week after he led a campaign to take the country out of the EU.
Johnson, whose backing for the Leave cause was seen as essential to its victory, saw his leadership bid suddenly crumble after his Brexit campaign ally, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, withdrew support and announced a bid of his own.
Michael Gove, Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath, commands the respect of MPs across the House of Commons for his measured approach and liberal ideas when it comes to policy making.
The problem is his colleagues are concerned he may not have the right appeal to swing wavering voters to the Tories in a General Election, and don’t forget he’s ruled himself out more than once already.
Born in 1967, Michael Gove was brought up by Labour-supporting adoptive parents in Aberdeen. After attending an independent school, he studied English at Oxford and had a career as a journalist before becoming an MP. Gove was known until recently to be one of outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron’s closest friends in Westminster; he often helped him prepare for the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions, when lawmakers quiz the leader in the House of Commons. But his decision to join the Vote Leave campaign reportedly drove a wedge into the friendship.
The Conservative MP’s background is very different to Tory colleagues who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. Adopted by a fish processor in Aberdeen and a lab assistant at the local university, Gove won a place in the most prestigious school in the area at the age of 11. At Robert Gordon’s College, he excelled at everything bar sport and quickly earned a reputation for his precociousness, which included riding an ‘ancient’ bicycle and fondness for suits. He later won a scholarship there when his parents fell on hard times due to diminishing fish stocks.
Gove’s reputation as the “politest man in politics” was cultivated in his youth. In an interview with the Guardian, his former headmaster George Allan said: “And when I see Michael on the television now, I can still see the 11-year-old boy. He didn’t change his persona throughout his school career. Consistency – that’s the word, consistency. We couldn’t claim to be the authors of his remarkable civility. He created his own image.”
By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy – ITA
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