Fife MP slams Michael Gove over offensive comments

AFife MP has said Prime minister Boris Johnson should consider Michael Gove’s fitness for high office after recordings appeared to reveal a string of sexist and racist jibes from his time as a student.

The Independent newspaper revealed recordings from three Cambridge Union debates, including one in 1987 and two in 1993 where a man identified by the paper as Mr Gove made a series of comments.

In one tape the now Conservative MP can be heard describing Margaret Thatcher’s policies as creating a “new empire” in which “the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner”.

Two further tapes were said to have been recorded in 1993 when Mr Gove was working as a journalist.

In the recording, the voice identified as Mr Gove can be heard making jokes about then-student Lucy Frazer, who now serves with him in government.

Mr Gove commented on Ms Frazer’s “preference” for fruit flavoured condoms, saying she had done “remarkably well” to come from “the back streets of the slums of Leeds”.

He also described Prince Charles as a “dull, wet, drippy adulterer”.

The recording also feature a 1987 debate on the empire, where Mr Gove apparently said: “It may be moral to keep an empire because the fuzzywuzzies can’t look after themselves.”

It was reported that sources close to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster did not dispute the authenticity of the recordings. The Cabinet Office has been approached for comment.

Mr Gove, who was born in Aberdeen, was also alleged to have said in the tapes that gay people “thrive primarily upon short-term relations”.

Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain, who represents North East Fife, hit out at Mr Gove.

“Michael Gove should be ashamed that he ever thought these things, let alone said them,” she said. “The prime minister should consider whether this is the type of person that deserves to be a the Cabinet table.

“However, given Boris Johnson’s own history of disgraceful remarks, I expect this will be another shameful issue he lets go.”

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Michael Gove should be ashamed that he ever thought those things, let alone said them

TAPED: Conservative MP Michael Gove was apparently recorded making controversial remarks as a student.