Michael Gove controversy has warped into something much more damaging
The environment secretary's admission of illegal behaviour has led to questions of double standards and trust.
Monday 10 June 2019 09:06, UK
There's a moment in many political stories where simple questions of right or wrong morph into something more pervasive, and for those seeking power, more damaging.
For Michael Gove and his history of drug taking, that moment appears to have arrived.
On Saturday, the environment secretary was ably defending himself against allegations he was unfit to be prime minister because he had taken cocaine while a young journalist.
On Sunday, that seemed to change.
What started as a story about illegal behaviour and youthful mistakes warped into one about double standards, hypocrisy and, ultimately, trust.
For someone standing for the highest office in the land, that story is far more dangerous.
The transformation began when The Mail on Sunday rooted out an article written by Mr Gove railing against middle-class drug users and warning about the damage done by illegal substances.
Crucially, it was written 20 years ago - around the same time that Mr Gove, by his own admission, was using cocaine.
There are also questions over how Mr Gove filled out the required paperwork for visiting the US, which asks specifically about illegality involving drugs.
The environment secretary says he has always been honest about his history of drugs use when asked directly and denies acting hypocritically.
But a smell still lingers of double standards.
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Many will wonder why a teenager on the streets of London or Manchester should be locked up for taking drugs, when an MP is simply forced into a newspaper confession.
Labour may not have been taking aim directly at Mr Gove, but opposition MPs have still been making hay out of the fact that a former justice secretary avoids punishment for drug use while many others have the book thrown at them.
A book, let's not forget, that Mr Gove helped write.
At a time when trust in the political establishment is at an all-time low, that's a damaging dynamic.
But how this issue has buffeted Mr Gove while his leadership rival Boris Johnson has so far remained unscathed also speaks to how the two frontrunners are running their campaigns.
Attack can be the best form of defence - and Team Gove this weekend chose to get ahead of the story by making their man admit to his crime, apologise and answer the allegations on live TV.
They may now be questioning that strategy after the interventions appeared to fan the flames of this story.
By contrast, Mr Johnson, a man with far more personal and colourful skeletons in his closet, has remained quiet throughout the early days of this contest.
On the subject of cocaine, there has been no public comment from the former foreign secretary, despite a continued haze lingering over his previous involvement with drugs.
The issue was first put to Mr Johnson in a 2005 episode of Have I Got News For You, where he replied that he had tried "unsuccessfully" to snort cocaine while at university but "sneezed" instead.
Cue raptures of laughter from the audience and, in time-honoured Johnson tradition, the specifics of the question remain unanswered - lost in a cacophony of charming buffoonery.
But two years later, the bombastic politician appeared to go further, telling GQ magazine he tried cocaine and cannabis as a teenager and remembers it "vividly".
That was later rowed back on during his campaign to be mayor of London in 2008, when he said that it was "simply untrue" that he had taken cocaine, adding that he had been offered a "white substance, none of which went up my nose".
Journalists are now being heavily steered towards this version of events.
But whatever did or didn't enter the nostrils of Mr Johnson three decades ago, the body blows being taken by his rival go some way to backing up his current understated campaign approach.
Yet the tousle-haired frontrunner will have to come out of the shadows eventually.
And when he does, Mr Johnson too will face questions about his past and his policies.
This leadership election is only just getting going.