Michael Gove’s ex-wife Sarah Vine has revealed the Tory heavyweight's cutting response when he was sacked by Boris Johnson.
During the last days before Johnson announced his resignation, the scandal-hit PM clashed with his former ally and levelling up minister.
The MP for Surrey Heath reportedly went to see his old friend to tell him it was time to resign and that the party had lost confidence in Johnson amidst dozens of resignations.
But as one his last acts before saying he would go, a defiant Johnson sacked Gove in dramatic fashion.
And now Gove's ex-wife, journalist Sarah Vine, has revealed his biting retort to being booted from the cabinet.
Writing in the Daily Mail, she describes how she had been watching Love Island with her children when the news broke via a text from her son’s friend.
Following that, Rachel Johnson, the Prime Minister’s own sister, texted Ms Vine to confirm the news.
She said that her kids demanded she rang Gove immediately.
She wrote: “'Get him on speakerphone, get him on speakerphone!' squealed my daughter. So we got him on speakerphone (Michael, not Boris). What on earth happened?
“'Well,' he explained, 'The Prime Minister rang me a few minutes ago and told me it was time for me to step back. I said, respectfully, 'Prime Minister, if anyone should be stepping back, it is you.'”
The cutting response came towards after a long, and often fractious, relationship between the two Tory MPs.
But Gove was left having the last laugh as less than 24 hours later Johnson was stood outside of No.10, announcing his intention to resign.
When asked what Gove’s next plan was, Ms Vine wrote he told his family he intended to have a glass of wine and slice of salami and “see what tomorrow brings”.
Ms Vine’s revelation of the sacking came after amongst a historic day in British politics. Boris Johnson attempted to battle on after months of scandals.
He clung to power over a tumultuous few days after revelations No.10 repeatedly lied about groping allegations against former Tory MP Chris Pincher.
Following two bombshell resignations of the then Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, another 57 Tory MPs also resigned from their roles in government.
Reports coming out of No.10 as late as early Thursday morning suggested the PM intended to remain defiant.
But in the hours that followed it was reported he would be going, and then at 12.30pm he made a speech, announcing his intention to resign.
He said “them’s the breaks” and added it was "clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader''.
But there is now debate over whether the PM should see out the rest of his time in No.10, or be immediately replaced by a caretaker prime minister.
The Conservative leadership contest could take as long as to the autumn to decide on the country’s next leader.
