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Michael Gove denies that Boris was drunk in charge

Michael Gove leads a lively life. In the past week he’s landed himself in the doghouse with his wife after a night on the town with Boris Johnson, and has been exposed as a gentleman rapper. Today, after giving an impassioned speech on teachers’ pay, the Education Secretary found himself being grilled by members of the lobby about both activities (rather than his desire to improve classroom standards). Did he leave Boris drunk in charge of a bicycle, wondered one member of the press pack.

‘As far as I could tell on Monday night, Boris was on sparkling form, and that was due more to his natural joie de vivre than to any vinous enhancement.’ 

As for his apparent love of rapping, revealed last weekend by Kirstie Allsopp, Mr Gove told a journalist who asked him for an encore:

‘I don’t think I could at the moment, no, it was a private occasion, but I was rapping in praise of Toby Young, whose free school, the West London Free School, has just been ranked by Ofsted as good with outstanding features, and I have to say that that’s probably more of a compliment than anything I managed to say over the dinner table.’

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