Michael Gove in U-turn for prime minister

He has pronounced himself incapable of running the country and even offered to sign his lack of ambition for Downing Street in blood, but Michael Gove has found new faith in his own abilities.

The justice secretary has surpassed pretty much every politician in history in the clarity and frequency of his protestations, renewing his insistence he could not be prime minister only recently in a EU referendum debate.

Now — in a bombshell move that will do nothing to dispel his reputation for hiding brutally-ruthless ambition behind a beaming collegiate smile — the best man has abandoned the groom even as he walked up the aisle.