Senior government minister Michael Gove became trapped in a lift en route to a BBC interview shortly after praising Iraq War architect Tony Blair as an “outstanding” prime minister deserving of a knighthood.
Blair, widely despised by left-wing, right-wing, and unaligned British voters for sending British forces into questionable, futile military interventions in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq with inadequate equipment and little long-term planing, as well as opening the floodgates to mass immigration and a host of other domestic policies, is currently the subject of a viral petition to strip him of a prestigious knighthood.
As of the time of publication, the petition has been signed by over 1,075,000 outraged members of the public — but the former Labour Party leader has found a defender in the form of Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities in the government of the supposedly rival Conservative Party.
“I think we should all recognise that he served this country, he continues to serve this country,” Gove alleged, as if Blair was a combat veteran — few of whom have knigthoods — rather than an ex-politician who made millions accepting jobs from international banking corporations and foreign insurance companies after leaving office.
“I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to be in a position like that without attracting controversy and without inviting opposition,” Gove continued.
“If I look back at Tony Blair‘s record, while there are aspects of it with which I can disagree, I think any fair-minded person would say that he was an outstanding statesman and performer and as a prime minister put public service first,” the Tory MP insisted. Gove declined to back up his claims with evidence and leaving the question of why he entered the House of Commons as the representative of a party supposedly opposed to Blair and his works if the Labour prime minister was so “outstanding” unasnswered.
Gove also failed to explain in what sense Blair “continues to serve his country” — presumably he was not thinking of how the ex-prime minister actively worked to overturn the Brexit vote which Gove campaigned for in 2016 and allegedly advised foreign leader Emmanuel Macron on how to outwit the British government during the Brexit negotiations, despite the fact he was supposed to be a loyal member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council.
Gove did not have the opportunity to repeat his comments in defence of Blair, made during an appearance on Sky News, for some time, however, becoming trapped in a lift at the BBC for some time in what some ungenerously described as a moment of “instant karma”.
BBC presenter Nick Robinson explained to listeners that Gove, one of the most important member’s of Boris Johnson’s administration, with broad responsibility for intergovernmental coordination, was not appearing on his programme as scheduled as a result of the incident.
“I wish I could say this is a joke, it is not a joke and it is not very funny for Mr Gove and the security man,” Robinson said.
The Secretary of State was rescued eventually, however, joking lamely that his rescuers has “levelled [him] up” and making it to the Robinson interview later than planned.
“We’re sorry Mr Gove was stuck in one of our lifts, but we’re glad he was later able to take part in the interview,” the BBC said in a statement.
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