The former Justice Secretary tells Peter Stanford of his prison reform plans and the fallout from his Brexit role

Though in his own words a “fairly conventional” practising Anglican, Michael Gove has a large colour photograph of Pope Emeritus Benedict propped up prominently on the bookcase of his office at the House of Commons. It is the first thing that meets my eye as he ushers me in. I have had people prepare for interviews with The Tablet before, but this surely takes the prize.

There is no premeditation, the charming Mr Gove is quick to reassure me when I point it out. His personal effects, he says, including vast piles of books, have only just arrived in his new, modest cubbyhole in Westminster that befits a former Cabinet Minister who has moved to the backbenches, and have therefore been scattered in every available place. Pope Benedict has simply risen to the surface in his own mysterious way.

“One of my most enjoyable moments as Education Secretary,” he enthuses, “was meeting Pope Benedict when he came to St Mary’s University, Twickenham [as part of the Pope’s 2010 state visit to the United Kingdom].” But not sufficient to persuade Michael Gove to “pope”, as he puts it. The closest he has got to converting, he jokes, is occasionally dropping in at Brompton Oratory in south-west London to enjoy its church music and “intelligent” sermons by the Provost, Fr Julian Large, once a fellow journalist at The Daily Telegraph in Mr Gove’s Fleet Street days, before both went on to higher things.