Michael Gove bursts on to Tory conference stage to Abba and gag about Aberdeen clubbing

Michael Gove likened the Tory conference to a nightclub today as he revelled in his middle-aged dad dancing exploits in front of the party faithful.

The Levelling Up Secretary, 54, came on stage to Abba‘s Dancing Queen in Manchester, weeks after being spotted throwing shapes at an Aberdeen nightspot.

And he immediately set about owning his new found notoriety, telling the audience: ‘Here we are – bright lights – great atmosphere – enthusiastic young people. It reminds me of my last night out on the town Aberdeen.

‘Dance like nobody’s watching they say, well I did, but they were watching!’

Mr Gove was seen partying away in Aberdeen –  his home city – in videos posted on social media over the August bank holiday weekend.

He also insisted levelling up is not a ‘left-wing idea’ and is about helping people ‘live their best life’. 

The Surrey Heath MP, who recently announced his split from Daily Mail columnist wife Sarah Vine, was seen throwing shapes after visiting an O’Neill’s pub in the Granite City in August.

He later went upstairs to Bohemia nightclub where he was filmed dancing to techno, after allegedly trying to swerve the £5 entry fee by telling door staff he was the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster –  a claim he later denied.

Musician Emma Lament, who posted the videos to Instagram on Sunday, wrote in the captions that newly-single Gove was ‘giving it big licks’ as he bopped to techno music.

In the videos, Gove, dressed in a suit with no tie, can be seen jumping, two-stepping and waving his arms around to the music.

In his speech the former Tory leadership contender also had a pop at Labour leader Keir Starmer for talking for almost 90 minutes at Labour’s conference last week in Brighton. 

After referencing his dancing exploits he told the conference audience:  ‘I know many people have recently been asking why a middle aged man spent more than an hour,  non-stop, unleashing a series of wildly un-coordinated gestures in front of a bewildered audience, who were left wondering if this was some sort of bizarre attempt to go back to the 80s.

‘But enough of Keir Starmer’s conference speech.’

The Communities Secretary highlighted the work of former Tory prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and Margaret Thatcher, before telling the party’s conference: ‘Never let anyone claim that levelling up and wanting all our children to grow tall is a left-wing idea.

‘The left want to keep people in their place so that minorities can be patronised, the country can be polarised and ambition is paralysed.

‘We want everyone to have the chance to choose their own future, to own their own home, to walk the streets in safety and to live their best life.’

He attempted to explain the Tories’ levelling-up slogan by stating it means four things.

He told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester: ‘We want to strengthen local leadership to drive real change.

‘We will raise living standards, especially where they are lower.

‘We will improve public services, especially where they are weaker.

‘And we will give people the resources necessary to enhance the pride they feel in the place they live.

‘And if you want to see all four in action and see levelling up in reality come to Teesside.’ 

Meanwhile Mr Gove later branded  thecondition of social housing in some parts of the country as ‘scandalous’, as he seeks to revampt the planning system to get more homes built.  

At a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Manchester, Mr Gove said: ‘The supply of social housing overall has not kept pace with the demand, and also the quality of social housing, particularly in some parts of the country, remains scandalously poor.

‘There are people who are living in conditions which are overcrowded, there are people living in conditions afflicted by damp and other factors which hold back the flourishing of the children and the families who are raised in those homes.’

The minister faces a challenge to persuade Tory MPs to support reforms to the planning system to help build the 300,000 new homes a year the Government is targeting by the mid-2020s.

He told a fringe event organised by the Demos think tank: ‘Resolving the housing problem, however it is defined, is a way both of making sure that people have a stake in the future and that families can grow in a holistic way, and it’s fundamentally about social justice as well.’

Mr Gove said ‘access to finance’ needed to be improved to help get people on the housing ladder.

‘It is also the case that we do need to look at the condition of social housing and the way in which we can make sure that there is proper incentivisation for those who are social housing providers both to improve stock and to increase numbers.

‘It is also, critically, the case that you won’t unlock supply of any kind unless you work with those who are the developers, the builders and the generators of that new stock.’

In a statement, shadow housing secretary Lucy Powell responded: ‘Frankly, it’s scandalous that Michael Gove thinks he can shirk the terrible legacy of his Government.

‘Labour is the party of homeowners and tenants. The Conservative record shows they are the party of speculators and developers.’