David Cameron is still in no mood to forgive Michael Gove, says ADAM HELLIKER
WHILE Michael Gove has buried the hatchet with Boris Johnson (although not, this time, in his back) he has been unable to revive his once-close friendship with David Cameron, who has not returned any of Gove’s phone calls in the 16 months since the EU referendum.
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The former PM is still in no mood to forgive what he sees as Gove’s treachery over not supporting his Remain campaign.
The situation remains awkward between the two families, who had been good friends for years and holidayed together.
Samantha Cameron has also rebuffed repeated conciliatory approaches from Gove’s wife, journalist Sarah Vine, who is godmother to the Camerons’ seven-year-old daughter Florence.
Ms Vine has admitted that Cameron was “shocked and hurt” when her husband decided he would lead the Vote Leave campaign. Asked whether he had spoken to Cameron, Michael Gove stuttered: “Er, the opportunity hasn’t arisen,” adding that Cameron had every right to “make judgments himself about how he spends his time and who he talks to”.
Before their referendum rift, the couples had been close, with their children going to the same primary school in Kensington.
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Steve Hilton, who served as Cameron’s director of strategy, had said of the bond between the two families: “It’s deep, it’s about being together with their children, and they love loads of things outside politics.”
But no longer.
A close friend of Mr Cameron says: “The frost has not thawed as far as David is concerned.
“He remains unimpressed by Gove’s ‘Brutus’ behaviour.
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“And Samantha takes the same view as David, of whom she is very protective.”
Meanwhile Cameron, who last week was in America on another speech - making tour, will not be pleased to learn that Gove, now Environment Secretary, has been on a charm offensive in Westminster to repair relations with pro-Remain MPs, and is being quoted by bookmakers with improved odds of 12/1 to replace Theresa May as Tory leader.
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WHEN she returned from a six-year sojourn in Los Angeles, Ashley Jensen moved back to London but she has now relocated to Bath, along with her hubby, actor Terence Beesley and their eight-year-old son Francis.
“We drew a circle of places that were around an hour from London,” says Ashley, 48, star of BBC TV’s Love, Lies & Records.
“I like being around beautiful architecture, and people who are happy.
“And which people are always happy? Tourists!
“Because they’re on their holidays.
“If I hadn’t lived in America, I would have been more reticent to move somewhere unknown but, because I didn’t know anybody when I went to America, it didn’t frighten me.”
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Of her TV role, set in a Leeds register office, she says: “It’s all quite messy but then people’s lives are a bit messy.
“I think everybody aspires to perfection but if we dig deeper, everybody is floundering.”
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FORMER prima ballerina Darcey Bussell retired from professional dancing some time ago, having suffered myriad injuries for her art, from battered knees and ankles to her most recent procedure, having her hip resurfaced.
But the Strictly judge, 48, has gradually reintroduced dancing to her schedule.
“I was missing those endorphins, so I started going to a Zumba class.
“It’s amazing how quickly my motivation came back.
“But I don’t pull myself to shreds any more.
“In the ballet world, you’re constantly competing with yourself.
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“Now I’ve learnt to just have fun with dance.
“What does scare me is the thought of not being able to do anything in my 70s, or even earlier.
“My joints are much older than they should be because of the strain I put them through in my career.”
Darcey, who is married to Australian businessman Angus Forbes, with whom she has two teenage daughters, says her most rewarding exercise now is taking the dogs for a walk.
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“Getting Lolli and Pop, who are spaniel/poodle crosses, was just the best thing.
“When life gets stressful, they force me to stop and appreciate the simple things in life.”
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THERE’S no question that Hugh Bonneville is devoted to his wife Lulu; indeed Mrs B now often accompanies her hubby on filming assignments to make sure the old smoothie doesn’t get too lonely while away from home.
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But even dear Hugh, 54, would agree that long unions – he’s been married for nearly 20 years – have their ups and downs.
So he’s looking forward to his next film which will examine the personal life of the author Roald Dahl, and his complex relationship with his wife, actress Patricia Neal.
“It’s a look at marriage and family dynamics,” says Hugh of the film, which will be set in the 1960s, when Dahl was struggling to write some of his most famous works, including Matilda and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
Despite his literary output, it was a time fraught with despair for Roald, whose seven-year-old daughter Olivia died from measles, while Patricia suffered three aneurysms.
Dahl took control of his wife’s rehabilitation, helping her to relearn how to talk and walk.
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“I can’t imagine anyone better to give the ambivalent nature of Dahl’s life,” producer Elliot Jenkins says of Hugh’s casting.
“He was such a man of wounded parts below his polished veneer of self-confidence.”
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THE cult worship of Jacob Rees-Mogg has reached its zenith: the upright Member for North East Somerset has been declared her “top celebrity crush” by reality TV cutie Georgia Toffolo.
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Georgia, 23, known to her friends as Toff, has popped a snap of Jacob (probably a racy shot of him in pin-striped pyjamas) in her rucksack for I’m A Celebrity, which starts this evening on ITV.
Torquay-born Toff is an enthusiastic Tory who would love to see Jacob in No.10.
The law graduate could certainly advise the Mogster on attracting younger voters by the judicious use of social media, having made a fortune from her time on the TV series Made In Chelsea as an “influencer” paid to post messages on Twitter and Instagram.
She believes the Tories need to up their game to counter Jeremy Corbyn’s successful targeting of the youth vote, enthusing: “Social media is there, ready to be used, the party could utilise it so well.”
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FINDING a chef for Prince Charles is proving tricky.
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Having failed to fill the vacancy before last month’s deadline, the post of a cook “with a working knowledge of organic food” is being readvertised.
Not that catering for Charles is easy, as illustrated by the cook at Chatsworth, Hervé Marchand, who was given strict instructions on how the Prince wanted his “picnic sandwich” while shooting with the Duke of Devonshire.
“Charles wanted a homemade granary bap exactly eight centimetres in diameter,” said the chef, “The first half had to be spread with mayonnaise, pesto, shredded salad leaves and an egg – fried on both sides so that it was not runny.
“Then add two slices of Gruyère.”
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Marchand was told he then had to butter the second half and add a little Marmite, before placing the two halves together.
But Charles still wasn’t finished. His order stated that the sandwich look “rustic,” so it had to be covered with a little white flour. Organic flour. Obviously.
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STANLEY Johnson is almost as much of a wag as his son Boris.
Recalling a trip to Zimbabwe with a group of tourists, Stanley says: “We were gazing at the magnificent Victoria Falls when a group of lions passed between our vehicle and the surging spray. ‘Take a look, folks’, I urged.
“‘Pride comes before a fall!’”
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IT’S an Establishment convention that after retiring from the Commons, former Cabinet ministers are usually rewarded with a peerage.
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But there has been no bauble for Peter Lilley, secretary of state for social security in John Major’s government, who stepped down at the last election after 34 years as an MP.
“It must have got lost in the post,” said Lilley at the launch of Quentin Letts’s brilliant book, Patronising *******s.
Added Lilley wryly: “Actually quite fancied the idea of being made Duke of St Albans [his first constituency].”
Not that his wife Gail misses a title.
“I would have become Lady Lilley,” she observed, “which sounds like a geisha girl.”