Liz Truss does not think Michael Gove is a sadist, Downing Street has said.
Gove helped force the prime minister’s humiliating U-turn on tax by publicly branding her plan the axe the 45p rate a “mistake”.
His intervention at the beginning of the Conservative Party’s conference in Birmingham torpedoed any remaining hope the gathering would pass off smoothy.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Truss had met Gove before the conference and had floated the possibility of appointing him as an ambassador only for him to then denounce her financial plans in public.
A No.10 aide told the paper: “It was the right thing to do, to invite him in. Michael asked for Liz’s advice and she told him to enjoy himself. Michael clearly gets his kicks in a sadistic way.”
Asked on Monday if Truss believed Gove was a “sadist”, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “No.”
Gove backed Rishi Sunak in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader and prime minister.
The former cabinet minister said he was quitting frontline politics after he left Johnson’s government as Tory MPs moved to oust the then PM.
Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget triggered disarray in the Tory party, after it spooked the markets and led to Labour leaping comfortably ahead in the polls.