Michael Gove is a liberal hero who everyone can get behind

He's already got David Cameron to tear up a prison deal with Saudi Arabia and has reversed Chris Grayling's ludicrous ban on books – what's next?

Michael Gove says society’s failure to rehabilitate criminals is ‘indefensible’ (Getty)

Michael Gove once waxed lyrical about Labour’s last elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, “I can't hold it back any more; I love Tony!”. Well, it’s about time for a paid-up member of the liberal left to repay the compliment, because I can’t hold it back any more; I love Govey.

Gove is now a secret liberal sleeper cell in the heart of the British establishment and remains our last hope of a nicer, more progressive society under the Tories. He’s begun to make his mark as the new Justice Minister by putting a clear divide between him and the sheer ghastliness of the former incumbent Chris Grayling. Gove has the potential to be the most liberal Justice Secretary since Roy Jenkins, a true reformer who could take Britain away from its Victorian attitudes towards prison and justice, save the European Convention on Human Rights, while pushing back against autocrats like the Saudis. There’s so much potential, but will the Tories let Gove be Gove?

One of Michael Gove’s first acts went largely unnoticed but was hugely symbolic.The former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling placed restrictions on families and friends sending books, yes books, to people in prison, in what was billed to the press as a clampdown on prisoners’ "perks and privileges". Some of the world’s most famous authors, from Salmon Rushdie to Martin Amis and Elif Shafak, led by writers charity English PEN and the Howard League for Penal Reform, petitioned Grayling to back down, but he refused to meet with them or even engage on the issue. Britain’s refusal to let families send their loved ones books struck a chord internationally, PEN prisoner of conscience Cameroonian poet Enoh Meyomesse wrote from his prison cell that books in prison "are like oxygen, they cannot be replaced". But Grayling refused to move. Books were "perks" and prison was for punishment. Within weeks of becoming the new Justice Secretary Gove reversed the ban, to little fanfare. And he didn’t stop there.

At the last Conservative party conference, Gove made one of the most significant speeches on prison in a generation. Gove told the Tory party he wanted to place “unremitting emphasis” in jails on “reform, rehabilitation and redemption”. What is crucial, he said, "is recognising that we should not treat prisoners as society’s liabilities who we keep out of sight and out of mind while they do their time. We should see them as potential assets – people who can contribute to society and put something back.”

Ramming home the point on reform, he emphasised that prison should be a place where inmates are offered a “second chance” by educating them: “When so many come into custody illiterate and innumerate it would be a crime if we didn’t get them reading and writing when they are in our care.“ Compare Gove’s speech with his predecessor Chris Grayling who said “I want to be the tough Justice Secretary”, or Labour’s Jack Straw, who attacked prison reformers as the ”criminal justice lobby“ and said he didn’t lose sleep over prisoner numbers.

More significantly, this week Gove forced the Cabinet to rip up a contract between the Ministry of Justice and the authoritarian Saudi regime that would have meant our civil servants would be advising their ruthless regime on prisons. This was no small feat. Gove had to take on Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who warned of the diplomatic consequences, and the national security council, who said such an act could jeopardise the sharing of intelligence between our military and the Saudis (a threat that is repeated whenever anyone challenges the House of Saud). It was expected that David Cameron would side with Philip Hammond and the deal would be signed, but, at the last moment our unlikely hero, Michael Gove, triumphed. The deal would not be done and the Ministry of Justice would no longer advise ruthless regimes on how they should run prisons.

A cynic may say - so what? Gove didn’t sign a contract that would place civil servants inside prisons where torture is routine and the death penalty applied, potentially opening up the possibility of endless lawsuits, so what? Gove is allowing prisoners access to books and wants them to be able to read and write, so he should!

It's a fair point. Really,there is one key test that will define Gove’s legacy as a reformer: will he protect human rights and roll back on the worst of Grayling's legal aid cuts? Michael Gove could choose to be the Justice Secretary to take Britain out of the Council of Europe, a body whose greatest proponent was conservative Winston Churchill, and whose founding document the European Convention on Human Rights was co-drafted by a conservative lawyer, David Maxwell Fyfe. Or, he could push his civil servants to draft a British Bill of Rights that is compatible with the European Convention, but goes further in some key areas where Britain has a proud tradition, such as our long-standing intellectual tradition for freedom of speech. A British First Amendment, in a British Bill of Rights that keeps us in the Council of Europe, would be a lasting legacy for Gove. On legal aid and court charges, Gove has to stop the Kafkaesque scheme where it's cheaper for you to plead guilty to a crime you did not commit rather than defend your Innocence, and fight at Cabinet level for more money for legal aid. The Michael Gove Fan Club (MGFC) may currently be a specialist interest, but if Gove can defend our human rights, reform our prisons and defend our free speech, he could leave quite a legacy.