I’ll admit it. I like Toby Young. Does that make me a bad person? Or a weak person? Or am I just impressionable?

But I’m not alone. The Evening Standard has reported that Michael Gove was singing Young’s praise to the rafters at the Spectator party in Birmingham. According to the Standard, in a “witty encomium to Young”, Gove  “prais[ed] to the skies his West London Free School”, celebrating his transformation from popular hack to standard bearer for a more rigorous education – or, as Gove allegedly put it, “one of the biggest hate figures in the media”. The Education Secretary also is reported to have gone one step further, and hinted that Toby Young might run for Parliament.

The more one thinks about this, the more it seems to make sense. After all, the route from the Spectator to Parliament is a well-trodden one. Recently, James Delingpole became a junior member of the club of Spectator political men – from Iain Macleod to Boris Johnson – when he threw his hat into the political swamp of Corby and East Northants. Not that Delingpole appears to have any serious ambitions for a political career. He is a single-issue campaigner (wind farms) and when pictured kissing a baby on the campaign trail, looked a bit like he was eating it. The same might be said of Boris Johnson, I hear you cry. To which I reply: true enough.

Speaking of the Mayor of London, when Toby Young was questioned about his political ambitions, he reverted straight to first principles. “It’s very flattering,” he said of the advances made to him by the Tory party. “But I think Borismania as hard enough for the party to handle without adding Tobymania to the mix.”

So there you have it. Boris denies harbouring leadership ambitions. Toby denies harbouring political ambitions. One wonders if their minds are fully made up? Continue reading on the Telegraph website