Michael Gove, known mostly as a Brexiteering former minister but also lately for his own dodgy dance moves, has moved to defend Angela Rayner who was widely criticised for DJing to 5,500 ravers at an Ibiza superclub during summer recess.
Following a meeting with mayors and housing regulators on Wednesday, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary was filmed just hours later dancing with the Australian DJ Fisher in front of a vast crowd at the Hi Ibiza superclub.
Later, in footage posted to Instagram by actor and presenter Denise van Outen, the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne could be seen singing along to a remix of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” with the DJ’s headphones around her neck, as a sea of smartphones held aloft in front of her captured the moment.
The moment was widely criticised in sections of the right-wing press with Nadine Dorries writing an op-ed saying that Ms Rayner’s behaviour “demeans her office”.
Former GB News host Dan Wootton posted: “Angela Rayner has been Deputy Prime Minister for 56 days. She’s disappeared from public view as Two Tier Keir warns of doomsday coming for all of us. Yet here she is raving into the early hours at one of the most expensive party clubs in Ibiza. What an absolute p*** take.”
But others hit back to tell outraged commentators to “lighten up”.
Mr Gove responded to a post by Conservative Home founder Tim Montgomerie on Twitter/X, saying: “Angela Rayner is absolutely not my political cup of tea (or even my political glass of Sangria) but all right-wingers criticising her for dancing in Ibiza need to lighten up.
“I’m always glad when politicians take some time off and rest. Plus… she’s a pretty good dancer.”
Michael Gove added: “It’s a tradition for Secretaries of State in the department.”
He was possibly referring to the moment he was pictured in a suit dancing wildly at Bohemia, a techno club in Aberdeen.
According to accounts, the then Cabinet Minister, who had recently separated from his wife Sarah Vine, was drinking until last orders – and was urged to move onto the club by fellow drinkers.
A claim that Mr Gove tried to avoid paying the £5 entry charge by repeatedly stating that he was the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster was rejected by friends of the minister.
Ms Rayner is due back in parliament on Monday, when the parliamentary summer recess ends.
It is unclear when the deputy PM was due to return from Ibiza, but she has previously spoken of her love for raving and “lethal” cocktails.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, the 44-year-old told comedian Matt Forde that she had just returned from Spain.
“The girls I was raving with are half my age, and I was like: ‘I’m a grandma’. I was proud of that,” she said. “4pm I started, and I got home at six o’clock in the morning when the sun was shining and I was like, ‘Yes, I can do it’.”
Asked whether she had managed it “with or without chemical support”, Ms Rayner reportedly said she just drank vodka, adding: “You’ve got to go with the music, the vibes. You’ve got to be in the moment and it takes you.”