Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cops called to Gove house over boozy underage party
Daughter’s 15th birthday bash turns into drink-fuelled chaos
POLICE were called to Michael Gove’s house after complaints over his daughter’s alcohol-fuelled 15th birthday party, his wife says.
Sarah Vine, the Environment Secretary’s partner, told how she had to shut it down due to the underage boozing.
She was also shocked by the behaviour of the boys, who were “plying the girls with drink and cigarettes” and had a “very clear agenda”.
But, she said, as youngsters waited to be picked up, “Three men from the estate opposite came over to complain.
“A few minutes later, two policemen arrived, investigating a noise complaint. My night (mare) was complete.”
Ms Vine told how she believed she would be able to keep the bash tame.
The newspaper columnist enforced a guest list, with partygoers coming from “London’s private school elite”, and hired three A-level student “bouncers”. The mum-of-two added: “I had a notion that at least if I held it at my house, I would be able to exercise some control.”
But she said the atmosphere “took a turn for the worse”.
Writing in her Daily Mail column, Ms Vine said she confiscated alcohol from revellers, including several bottles of vodka and some Veuve Clicquot champagne, plus “one very dodgy cigarette”.
She described the dancing as “properly provocative” and said the boys there “had a completely skewed notion of what girls were for”.
She went on: “You read a lot about the pressures young girls face in this age of internet porn. But it is not until you see the effects for yourself that you realise how much the social landscape of the modern teenager has changed.”
The columnist had to clear up “a trail of broken glass, cigarette butts and assorted liquids” left behind by the revellers at their home in West London.