'I would have sacked me too': Michael Gove says PM was right not to keep him in cabinet

Former justice secretary Michael Gove has admitted he made "mistakes" in his bid for the Conservative Party leadership.

In an interview with Fern Britton to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, Mr Gove also said he regretted the way he declared his withdrawal of support for Boris Johnson.

"The way in which I declared my stand for the leadership, I shouldn't have done it in that way," the 49-year-old said.

Mr Gove - whose dramatic intervention led Mr Johnson to pull out of the race to succeed David Cameron in June - said he now had to "take the consequences" of his decision.

Michael Gove famously betrayed fellow Leave campaigner Boris Johnson. Credit: PA

"As I look back on that time, I think that there were mistakes that I made. But ... I am still relatively close to those events so I am still in the process of reflecting on what I got wrong and what I called right."

"I also think that my initial instinct that I was not the best person to put themselves forward as a potential prime minister, well most of my colleagues agreed, " Mr Gove conceded.

Asked how he felt about the fact that his backstabbing action has become widely known as "doing a Gove", he said: "

"I know that I made mistakes so there's no point in me complaining. I've got to bear the consequences of my own actions."

Gove and Theresa May had also reportedly locked horns in during their time as ministers. Credit: HoC

Mr Gove also said he accepted that Theresa May was "right" to tell him there was no place for him in her Cabinet, despite offering high-ranking jobs to his fellow-Brexiteers David Davis, Liam Fox and Mr Johnson.

"When Theresa May became prime minister she said that she no longer had a place for me in the cabinet and, to be honest, if I'd been in her shoes I would have sacked me to," he told the BBC.

But Mr Gove appeared to indicate that he has not given up on a return to frontline politics, saying he hoped to be able to "make a contribution" in future.

Michael Gove was sacked as justice secretary after Theresa May took over as prime minister. Credit: PA

Mr Gove said he was now focusing on his work on the Commons Committee on Exiting the EU and wanted to campaign for children at risk of abuse or neglect.

"I had a chance to argue for things that I believed in," he said. "And I will also have the chance, I hope, in the future to be able to argue for other things in which I believe, to make a contribution."