Watch: Michael Gove’s bizarre media round

It was an unconventional start to the day for Michael Gove this morning. The veteran minister appeared on BBC Breakfast to deny whispers within Whitehall of an ’emergency Budget,’ slapping down such talk by using a bizarre array of accents that ranged from American to Harry Enfield’s infamous ‘Scousers’ impersonation. Gove told listeners across the country that:

We are constantly looking at ideas in order to ensure that we relieve the pressure on people who are facing incredibly tough times, but that doesn’t amount to an ‘emergency budget’, which is what some people immediately thought that it did. It is an example of some commentators chasing their own tails and trying to take a statement that is commonsensical, turning it into a major – capital letters – Big News Story, and, in fact, when the Treasury quite rightly say ‘calm down’ then people instead of recognising that they’ve overinflated the story in the first place, then say ‘oh this is clearly a split’.