What was the point of pretending the Yellowhammer no-deal Brexit document was out of date?
Michael Gove insisted the leaked document was old, but it turns out it was written on 1 August – so how effective is this kind of spin, asks John Rentoul
Michael Gove’s new role in government is to act as Boris Johnson’s crumple zone – the part of the vehicle of government designed to absorb the shocks of the bumps on the road to no-deal Brexit.
In one of the new prime minister’s more brutal moves, Gove – who as a departmental minister had warned of the serious consequences of leaving the EU without an agreement – was put in charge of no-deal planning.
So when the Yellowhammer document detailing what might happen in a no-deal scenario was leaked to The Sunday Times, Gove was the obvious minister to go on TV to reassure a nervous nation.
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