When Michael Gove was appointed justice secretary following the Tories’ shock election victory, legal aid lawyers did not hold out much hope; the best they could cling to was that he is not Chris Grayling. But Gove’s actions at the MoJ quickly recast him, at least partially, as something of a liberal hero.

After two months in office, the new broom swept away his predecessor’s plans for a supersized 320-place secure college for young offenders. Days later, the ludicrous ban on prisoners receiving books went the same way.

The U-turns came thick and fast as he pulled out of a £5.9m prison deal with Saudi Arabia and abolished the much-criticised criminal courts charge.

Yet despite all these reversals, he persisted – in the face of protests, whistleblowing and legal challenges – with the two-tier contracting arrangements. He even suffered the same ignominy as Grayling: having a large papier máché effigy of himself rolled out at a Justice Alliance rally.

Perhaps that swung it. Finally, in a written statement, Gove announced he had decided ‘not to go ahead with the introduction of the dual contracting system’. The recasting of this pragmatic politician as a legal aid superhero was complete – he even has his own tights (and, as he told The Times, ‘a lovely pair of patent pumps with a buckle’).

But let’s not get carried away. As he recently told the Commons, he has not yet become a ‘sandal-wearing, muesli-munching, vegan vaguester’, but remains ‘the same red-in-tooth-and-claw blue Tory that I have always been’.