Michael Gove is among those to have been awarded a gong in

The former Cabinet minister, who served across multiple departments, will join the House of lords, where he can once again return to a position of power in Parliament. Mr Gove, who is currently editor of Tory magazine The Spectator, is joined by , Mel Stride and James Cleverly who received knighthoods on Mr Sunak's honours list.

Mr Sunak handing awards to his close allies immediately sparked accusations of "shameless cronyism", with the former PM's list criticised for giving out "rewards for failure". A peerage for controversial Mr Gove, who was Education Secretary for four years, was slammed by education unions.

Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said the move was a "slap in the face" to those who suffered under his tenure. "It is typical of Conservative prime ministers to reward failure when they leave office," he said.

"Michael Gove inflicted deep harm to our education system, and we are living with his legacy to this day. Student mental health has deteriorated since 2010. The wellbeing of teachers has too. He created a toxic culture of exam factories, excessive accountability and out of control workload. That is not something to honour. His peerage is a slap in the face to those left picking up the pieces."

Mr Gove, who was the Conservative MP for before stepping down at last year's , served in Parliament for almost two decades. He ended his career as Housing Secretary but he also spent time heading the Ministry of Justice, the Environment Department and the Education Department. He also took a leading role in the Brexit campaign - as well as getting himself tangled in controversies and political dramas.

Here The takes a look at some of Mr Gove's most controversial and weirdest moments.

Mr Gove came under fire when he mimicked a Scouse accent while talking about the cost of living crisis in 2022.

He was criticised for "making jokes and using silly voices" when discussing serious financial issues faced by families across the country. Asked about the possibility of an emergency budget in a TV interview , the then-Levelling Up Secretary seemingly attempted both Scouse and American accents.

Mr Gove said the words "emergency budget" and "a major, capital letters, big news story" in what appeared to be an American accent. He then said people needed to "calm down" in an apparent Scouse accent, which sparked comparisons to comedian Harry Enfield's sketch.

At the time, Labour's Lisa Nandy, who is now the Culture Secretary, tweeted: "What is he doing!?" Making jokes and using silly voices while families across the country are struggling to survive. This isn't a game (or an Oxford Union debate!). People are having to choose between heating and eating. Take it seriously. Do your job."

The top Tory held a string of government posts under four Tory PMs, including a divisive four-year stint as Education Secretary where he mocked the education unions and teachers as the "Blob". When his time in the role finally came to end in 2014, the sort of comments teachers were sharing on social media included: "The worst education secretary in living memory."

Mr Gove's radical overhauling of the education system, which included exams reform, academisation of schools and re-inventing league tables, was received with mixed opinions across the sector. Responding to his peerage, Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was a "controversial Education Secretary" but added: "There is no doubting his belief in the transformative power of education and his commitment to high standards for all children and young people."

That being said, the upset with Mr Gove was his disregard for teachers, the very people he needed on his side to turn his words into action. He popularised the term "The Blob" - which has since been used widely by the Tories to criticise the civil service - by using it against teachers, education unions and councils who were critical of his plans. It created a toxic relationship between the government and teachers, which ultimately only served to hinder Mr Gove's reforms.

Mr Di’Iasio added: "The manner in which he pursued his agenda was at times poorly judged and unnecessarily confrontational."

Nightclub revellers have had the pleasure - or displeasure - of spotting Mr Gove throwing shapes on the dancefloor multiple times.

In 2023, he where he was spotted dancing to a disco classic. The then Levelling Up Secretary was seen grooving to Donna Summer's hit 'I Feel Love' at Club Tropicana in the early hours of the morning.

In 2021, he was spotted raving to jungle and techno beats in a suit on another solo night out in Aberdeen. The Tory Minister showed up at O'Neill's Bar at 1.15am during a summer trip to visit family. Punters urged him to join them upstairs at nightclub Bohemia, where another clubber said he stayed until at least 2.30am.

During his career, Mr Gove has faced accusations of being a hypocrite after it emerged he had criticised middle-class drug users - despite having taken cocaine himself.

In 2019, the Tory politician admitted having taken cocaine “on several occasions” more than 20 years before. “I took drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago,” he told the Daily Mail. “At the time I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and I think, I wish I hadn’t done that.” He admitted he was "fortunate" not to have gone to prison.

At the time, an article he'd written in 1999 in The Times was republished in which he had criticised middle-class professionals taking drugs and accused them of pushing for the liberalisation of drug laws to ease their guilt. The resurfacing of the article triggered accusations of hypocrisy against Mr Gove.

Just months after taking office as Tory Education Secretary in 2010, Mr Gove cancelled ’s £55billion school building programme. Nearly six out of ten of the schools which saw savage cuts to funding for building and refurbishment were in Labour constituencies.

It led to a high court battle, in which a judge told Mr Gove his decision had been "so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power". The then Education Secretary was ordered to reconsider his plans as it had been unlawful to press ahead with them without consulting local authorities.

It wasn't it was a mistake to cancel the Building Schools for the Future programme. In 2016, He told the BBC's it wasn't wrong for the government to try and , but that it was done in a "crass and insensitive way".

In 2023, amid the crumbling concrete crisis in schools, an investigation by Schools Week found at least 11 secondary schools with confirmed RAAC had proposed rebuilds scrapped by Mr Gove.

When he was Housing Secretary last year, Mr Gove admitted he could not guarantee "no-fault" evictions would be banned in England by the next general election. This was despite the Conservatives promising to end landlords evicting tenants without needing a reason in 2019 - five years before.

Labour has finally pressed ahead with the ban with its renters' rights legislation. Campaigners had previously criticised Mr Gove and the Tories' attempts at new laws for renters being too weak.

During his tenure, Mr Gove came under fire for increasing child homelessness - with record numbers of kids in temporary accommodation. In May last year, just before Mr Sunak called the general election, campaigners warned seven pupils in every school will be homeless if the next Prime Minister doesn't fix the housing crisis.

In a letter to leaders of the three main party leaders at the time, Glastonbury founder Sir Michael Eavis, and charities and social housing groups, said: "An entire generation of children risk having their futures snatched away if the next Prime Minister does not act to end the housing crisis."

A controversial time for Mr Gove was during the Brexit campaign - when he betrayed not one, but two of his Tory colleagues. He played a leading role in the Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum - going against his old pal , the then Tory PM who wanted to remain in the EU.

In the same year Mr Gove famously stood as Tory leader in 2016 in a move that scuppered Boris Johnson's hopes of becoming PM. As news of his peerage broke, an ally of Mr Johnson branded him "one of the biggest traitors in politics".

Asked on Friday whether Mr Gove deserved a peerage, minister Stephen Kinnock said: "I think has done huge damage to this country, he's one of the architects of having a with no plan, which led to the botching of the deal, he's been at the heart of some really damaging policies... look at the mess we ended up in. I wouldn't be the person giving him a peerage."

Mr Gove came under fire after mocking famous rapper Stormzy, who at the time had backed then-Labour leader and had criticised "sinister" .

In response, Mr Gove said: “He is a far, far better rapper than he is a political analyst." When replied to him saying "And Michael Gove is crap at both", Mr Gove said: "I set trends dem man copy."

Labour’s accused the Tory minister of “sanctioning crass stereotypes” by “telling an intelligent, successful young black man to stay out of politics”. The now Foreign Secretary added: “Challenge stereotypes, don’t compound them.”

Last year, Mr Gove apologised for failing to declare VIP hospitality at football matches, costing £1,800.

The Cabinet minister was probed after admitting he did not register the freebies provided by Queens Park Rangers with parliamentary authorities. Mr Gove, 56, took son William to three matches between 2020 to 2022. The top Tory wrote to the Commons sleaze watchdog, apologising for "an oversight on my part".

Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg found he broke Commons rules by failing to declare hospitality within 28 days. He also found a "minor" breach relating to Mr Gove's late declaration of a charity role but proposed no further penalty.

In 2021, it emerged that made crude sexual comments, joked about paedophilia and used a racist slur in a series of remarks in his twenties.

In a bombshell exposé, the then-minister used a racial slur to refer to black people and made derogatory remarks about gay people. He branded a “dull, wet, drippy adulterer” in speeches at the Cambridge Union while he was studying at Oxford, and after his graduation while working as a journalist.

In one speech he made a sexist joke about Lucy Frazer, then the head of the Cambridge Union who was hosting the debate and who went on to become Tory Culture Secretary. He said she had "done remarkably well coming as she has done from the back streets of the slums of Leeds".

In apparent attempts at humour, Mr Gove referred to people living in countries colonised by the British as “fuzzy-wuzzies” and described Margaret Thatcher’s policies as a “new empire” where “the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner”.

Mr Gove made the comments, which were met at the time by cheers, laughter, and shouts of “shame”, at three evening debates at the Cambridge Union in February 1993, December 1993 and during the winter of 1987. The Independent obtained recordings of the events.

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