Has Ian Hislop got mockery for Michael Gove

To be a politician and go on Have I Got News For You, one has to be very confident, very brave or very, very stupid. Which is Michael Gove?

The Conservative peer, former Cabinet minister and now editor of the Spectator, who fancies himself as a bit of a wit, went into the bear pit of the satirical panel show last week – and perhaps may be reconsidering just how wise that was.

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Rats in a Sack

Reminded by captain Ian Hislop how David Cameron had said Gove “had one overriding quality, disloyalty”, Gove awkwardly laughed, “I think I’ve got many other good qualities as well”, only for Hislop to straight-facedly retort: “Yeah, I can’t think of any, but that’s a good one.” And that was just the start.

Hislop won a rousing round of applause just for saying “I’ve always liked experts”, to which Gove had to gamely laugh along, while the former minister was left looking down at his desk at Hislop talking of how we’d just seen “a large number of members of the Cabinet stabbing each other in the back in the hope of becoming leader. Michael?” “This is an unprecedented departure from the high standards that had been set by previous governments,” noted Gove.

The Private Eye editor also noted how initially stopping Boris Johnson from becoming Conservative leader when Cameron stepped down was Gove’s “one good deed in this life”, while the peer was also subjected to the video of him dancing in an Aberdeen nightclub after reportedly trying to avoid a £5 entrance fee by stating that he was the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Hislop also described Gove’s interview with Donald Trump for the Times in 2017 as “sycophantic drivel” (“I prefer to think of it as balanced,” said Gove).

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Rats in a Sack

Finally, host David Tennant made a joke comparing having a penile implant specialist heading the Hantavirus response to allowing an office interior design firm to supply PPE during the Covid pandemic, ending it with “Michael?”.

“Er… I think that as one looks back, the best expunger of amnesia wipes the slate of memory clean,” responded Gove, to actual boos from the Have I Got News For You audience. “I don’t think anyone’s really forgotten, Michael,” said Hislop.

Alas for Gove, who looked like a broken man by the end, nobody’s likely to forget his appearance in a hurry either. Leave comedy to the comedians, Govey!