The National:

BETWEEN Lorraine Kelly's brutal reply to a question about Esther McVey and now an (in)famous businessman's response to Michael Gove trying to bury a story, it's been quite the day for Tory leadership candidates.

Gove has been upping the attacks on rival Boris Johnson, which some cynical people would suggest might, perhaps, maybe, have something to do with distracting from the disastrous fall-out of him admitting to taking cocaine.

To cover his bases, Gove has also addressed the ongoing stooshie by asking for pity.

Pleading for forgiveness from his fellow Tory MPs in a televised apology, he said: "People should never be defined by the worst decisions they have made."

On Twitter, Gerald Ratner weighed in with a perfect response.

Ratner is famed for being the jewellery boss who saw his firm's fortunes plummet after he made a joke about how bad their products were.

He tweeted: "Michael Gove: 'People shouldn’t be defined by the biggest mistake they’ve made in their lives.' I wish"

Shares in the Ratners jewellery business fell by around £500 million after he called one of the products "total crap" and said one pair of earrings "was cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long".

It destroyed the public's image of the products that had been built up.

Gove, at least, doesn't have much of a public image to destroy.