Michael Gove challenged over Brexit 'lies' at Athens Airport by passenger in 30-hour delay

Candida Jones, a former Labour councillor who works for a Labour peer, challenged the former Cabinet minister at Athens International Airport in Greece.

The London woman had been due to return to Gatwick on Saturday but her Easyjet flight was postponed until 10.35pm on Sunday due to airport disruption, meaning she didn't reach her destination until 2am on Monday morning.

Jones confronted Gove, who is thought to be holidaying alone after his divorce, accusing him of “treating the British people as if we’re stupid”.

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The 50-year-old said UK airport delays were “compounded by Brexit” as she took the former levelling up minister to task.

Jones asked Gove to name the “opportunities” of Brexit, to which he said agricultural reforms and the Covid vaccine rollout.

She told The Mirror: “I said ‘come on, this is just ridiculous. There’s nothing about being an EU member that in any way impeded us from doing the vaccine rollout sooner’.

"I said ‘you are a smart guy, and know what you are telling me is not true, and you have got to stop treating the British people as if we’re stupid.”

Almost 30hr delay to our @easyJet flight now. I'm told the problem's a lack of staff due to the pandemic compounded,in the case of the UK, by #Brexit. So it's at least some consolation to find arch Brexiteer @michaelgove caught up in the same shitshow #BrexitChaos #BrexitShambles pic.twitter.com/mYT7oDD1it

— Candida Jones 🇪🇺 (@candidaj) August 14, 2022

Jones vented her anger on social media alongside a picture of Gove on his phone in the airport, writing: “Almost 30hr delay to our @easyJet flight now.

"I'm told the problem's a lack of staff due to the pandemic compounded, in the case of the UK, by Brexit.

"So it's at least some consolation to find arch-Brexiteer @michaelgove caught up in the same shitshow.”

Jones said Gove was “polite but very passive-aggressive” as he insisted Brexit was not the cause of the disruption.

The former Labour politician also challenged Gove on the infamous £350m-a-week Vote Leave bus used during the EU referendum, as well as running through “some of the other lies” of the campaign.

Jones said she was polite to the politician but added that as a public servant, he must be held to account.

Jones said: “[Gove said] 'I’m on my holiday and this is not the appropriate place for this conversation' - that was the gist.

Michael Gove said Brexit was not the cause of airport disruption

“I said yes, and I’m on my holiday and I’ve spent 30 hours trying to get home.”

She said the Brexiteer was essentially telling her: “I thank you for the opportunity of hearing your views but I don’t think you and I are going to persuade each other”.

Jones said while it was “impossible to quantify” how much of the airport disruption was due to leaving the EU or the impact of Covid, she said the staff shortages were “compounded by Brexit”.

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The incident comes 14 years after Jones ran into another high-profile Tory politician. 

In 2008 she had written an article titled “How George Osborne ruined my day at the beach in Corfu”.

According to Jones, families "complained loudly that this was an inappropriate place to bring a motorboat" to which Osborne replied: “It's a pier, that's what it's for!"

An ally of Gove said of the confrontation: “He was polite as ever."