Michael Gove was eyeing up PM position as far back as three years ago, says Sam Cam’s sis

SCHEMING Michael Gove had his sights on the Tory leadership from as far back as three years ago, David Cameron’s sister-in-law suggested last night.

In an extraordinary re-eruption of the feud between the two families, Emily Sheffield hinted that Mr Gove’s wife Sarah Vine had laid bare his ambitions at the PM’s country retreat Chequers in 2013.

Mr Gove shocked Westminster last month when he knifed Boris Johnson and decided to stand for Tory leader himself in the wake of the Brexit vote – despite years of claiming he had no interest in becoming PM.

Recalling the events in a column for the Spectator, Ms Sheffield wrote: “Over subsequent days there were more reasons both public and personal to feel capsized, coming on top of watching the Prime Minister’s ‘friends’ campaign ferociously against him; like many I was suspicious that their aims were not wholly principled, further confirmed when Gove devastatingly turned on his campaign partner.

“I didn’t want to believe he was Machiavellian (I still don’t), or think that surprising statements made by his wife to me at Chequers three years before, with Gove listening, were nightmarishly coming true.”

The claims by Ms Sheffield, who is deputy editor of posh fashion mag British Vogue and is Samantha Cameron’s sister, blow apart Mr Gove’s repeated insistence he did not want the top job.

And it is the latest twist in the extraordinary falling out between the Goves and Camerons which began when Mr Gove decided to back Brexit in February.

That sparked a blazing row between Mrs Cameron and Ms Vine at a friend’s party – ending more than a decade of close friendship.

Ms Sheffield also used her Spectator column to reveal the Brexit vote made her want to “throw eggs” at the door of former Number 10 guru Steve Hilton, who backed the Leave campaign.

And she issued a chilling warning to Theresa May as she fiercely defended “good man” Mr Cameron and his record.

Urging the new PM to defend Mr Cameron’s legacy, she wrote: “They will come for you, I am afraid one day, Prime Minister, like they did for Thatcher, Blair and Brown.

“You need to be emblematic of so much more than just a strong leader. So as you set out your stall for the future, in these troubled times, please loudly champion the past, set your valuation high for all — especially Westminster, as your predecessor did at his last PMQs, because that’s better for our future.”

It comes just days after Ms Sheffield used Twitter to launch a blistering attack on Mrs May’s “depressingly cynical approach”.

Her online postings famously got her into trouble in 2013 when she shared a picture of Mr Cameron asleep in the bridal suite of her sister Alice Sheffield.