Michael Gove says he would give up his Cabinet seat to a Lib Dem to make a deal happen

That was indeed what Michael Gove said at the end of his interview with Andrew Marr this morning.

The shadow schools secretary repeatedly refused to prejudice the negotiations with the Lib Dems by prescribing what Tory red lines would be on issues, not least the voting system - although he reiterated the party's call for equal-sized constituencies and for the introduction of recall ballots.

But he did say that the national interest must come first right now and that he wanted the Conservatives to form "as strong a relationship as possible" with the Lib Dems. He said that he was respectful of what the Lib Dems wanted to do, would listen to their priorities and that they should be given a fair opportunity to shape the agenda.

He praised his Lib Dem counterpart, David Laws, for being as "thoughtful", "flexible" and "motivated by idealism", before suggesting that there may be options in between fully fledged coalition with the Lib Dems and a minority Conservative government.

Watch this space...

> PoliticsHome has more extensive quotes from Mr Gove's interview

Jonathan Isaby