One of the key architects of the Brexit campaign has conceded that his name is now synonymous with stabbing a close ally in the back.
Michael Gove said that he knew that the phrase "doing a Gove" was now shorthand for an act of treachery, but said he had to "take the consequences" of his actions.
He also admitted that he had made mistakes when he dramatically withdrew his support for Boris Johnson's Conservative leadership campaign earlier this summer.
Westminster was shocked when he announced he could no longer back the Foreign Secretary just hours before Mr Johnson was due to hold a press conference to throw his hat in the ring.
There was disbelief among some Tory MPs when Mr Gove went one further and launched his own, ill-fated leadership bid.
His dramatic intervention, which critics claimed was timed to cause maximum damage, led Mr Johnson to pull out of the race to succeed David Cameron.
The Aberdeen-raised MP has now admitted that he made "mistakes" in the way he declared he was withdrawing his support.
Speaking to Fern Britton in an interview to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, Mr Gove also said he was "still in the process of reflecting on what I got wrong and what I called right".
But he said he agreed with Theresa May's decision to sack him as a cabinet minister, despite offering high-ranking positions to his fellow-Brexiteers David Davis, Liam Fox and Mr Johnson.
The 49-year-old Gove also hinted at a return to frontline politics someday, saying he hoped to be able to "make a contribution".
David Cameron "undoubtedly felt let down" that his friend backed Brexit, but had behaved with "incredible decency" when they spoke following his resignation on the day after the referendum vote, Mr Gove said.
But he would not be drawn on Mr Johnson's words when they spoke after his dramatic U-turn.
The Surrey Heath MP, who had been Mr Johnson's campaign manager, also insisted he tried t ring his fellow Brexit campaigner before he accused him of being unable to "provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead".
"I rang that morning," said Mr Gove. "I tried to speak to Boris but the phone rang dead when I called him so I then spoke to his lieutenant in order to explain what we were going to do. So, no, I did definitely did try to ring Boris at the time."
Mr Gove told Britton that, looking back, "the way in which I declared my stand for the leadership, I shouldn't have done it in that way".
Asked how he felt now that the phrase "doing a Gove" has become synonymous with backstabbing, he said: "I know that I made mistakes so there's no point in me complaining. I've got to bear the consequences of my own actions."
He added: "My initial instinct that I was not the best person to put themselves forward as a potential Prime Minister, well most of my colleagues agreed."
He added: "When Theresa became Prime Minister she said that she no longer had a place for me in the Cabinet and, to be honest, if I'd been in her shoes I would have sacked me too. So I entirely accept that sacking me at the time was the right thing to do.
"I had six years when I was a government minister, I had a chance to make a difference - I hope that I did.
"But nothing is forever in politics and having had the chance to serve, having had the chance to, to make a difference, I have to accept that the way in which I spent the final week or so of my ministerial life involved my making mistakes and having made mistakes you have to take the consequences."
Mr Gove has since staged something of a political comeback and is now a member of the high-prfile Commons Brexit Committee.
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