Lots of people with 'egg on their faces' after backing Mandelson appointment, Lord Michael Gove tells LBC
The former Tory cabinet minister said he was "just as gullible and swept along" and admitted his sympathy for Sir Keir Starmer
Former cabinet minister Lord Michael Gove has told LBC there is "egg on a lot of faces" including a "few scraps of yolk" on his after believing the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador was "sensible."
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Lord Gove said he and many other MPs initially backed Sir Keir Starmer's decision to add the disgraced former peer to his team because of his skill set.
He also supported the Prime Minister's claim that he wasn't aware of the full extent of the ties Mandelson had with Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, Mr Gove said: "There's egg on a lot of faces at the moment and there's a few scraps of yolk and albumin on mine, because I thought that given the range of people who were available, that this was a sensible choice.
"I thought, given the Trump White House, given the importance of the Anglo-American relationship, given his undoubted skill as a minister and his experience as an EU commissioner, this was a good choice.
"I'm a Tory, but here I do have some sympathy with the position that Keir Starmer finds himself in.
"Those around Starmer will have said that this choice was a risk, but it was a risk. Where Mandelson's experience and his ability was known, what was also known was his unreliability.
"But what was unknown was the scale of the activity and the intimacy with Epstein at the time he was appointed. There were some people who rang the alarm bell."
Lord Gove added he was "as gullible a duck swept along by the tide in the SW1 pond as any."
Earlier in the day, the PM delivered a public speech where he apologised for believing the "lies" told by Mandelson in an attempt to cover up the true extent of his association with Epstein.
Sir Keir has come under fire from within his own party after he revealed he knew of Mandelson’s continued relationship with Epstein.
Lord Gove said he sympathised with his position, but said there was a "difference between my own personal sympathy and trying to be objective about the public reaction."
When asked about who the next leader could be, he told Andrew: "Ed Miliband doesn't want to do it, I understand, but he may be that there is a move behind him and then there's a dark horse.
"Yvette Cooper, whose experience and relative sure-footedness means that if there were a determined effort to find someone around whom Labour could unite other than Starmer, it might be her.
"But given the range of runners and riders that we've been through and the obstacles they face in this Grand National, I actually think that Starmer may be around for longer than some think."
Lord Gove also discussed the chances of Angela Rayner, who he described as having the "real political sort of instincts" absent in Sir Keir.
"We saw that over welfare reform, where she got the coals out of the fire for Starmer and Reeves, and where she effectively prevented Labour MPs from rebelling by coming forward with an uncomfortable but necessary compromise," he said.
"So I do think that she has that raw political skill but in her case, there is still some unfinished business with HMRC over the tax arrangements relating to her flat in Brighton."