Did Michael Gove actually 'like' a NSFW image on Twitter?

Warning: The following article is of a NSFW nature, obviously.

It's been a strange week for news in British politics.

Firstly, Boris Johnson's key adviser Dominic Cummings was accused of twice breaking lockdown rules to travel to Durham and 'test his eyesight.'

Then the government was accused of trying to distract from the story by launching their coronavirus track and trace app ahead of schedule which caused Matt Hancock to laugh hysterically on live television.

Now we arrive at this: a government minister apparently 'liking' a very NSFW gif on Twitter from an account that is appears dedicated to imagery of an adult nature.

However, the like was quickly removed but sleuths on social media immediately noticed what had happened and screenshots and jokes were soon all over Twitter.

This reminds us of a very similar incident to what happened to former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz who was also caught liking NSFW content on Twitter.

In 2018, the then chief of staff to Theresa May, Gavin Barwell, replied to a pornographic tweet something which he later said that he did 'regret'.

Gove's account was a bit quicker to remove the like than Cruz and Barwell was but it is still an alarming moment that has prompted a response from a source close to the minister.

In a statement given to The Mirrorsuggests that they are not sure how this happened but have updated the security on the account to prevent it from happening again.

This is obviously embarrassing but we are not sure how it happened. As soon as we saw this, it was deleted.

Many people have access to the account and the password has now been changed and the security upgraded as you would expect.

The story is obviously very unusual and given the nature of the internet there is an element of suspicion to whether this is real or not.

Unfortunately, the websites MPsonTwitter and Politwoops which monitors the activities of members of parliament on Twitter does not account for likes.

However, the account that Gove reportedly liked does exist and the tweet is from 2 May as shown in the screenshots. In addition, the account has posted a reply to that tweet featuring the quote from The Mirror's article which would suggest that the persons who runs that account was aware of what happened (were not going to post a link here for obvious reasons so you'll just have to look it up for yourself).

To try and gain a bit more information on this story Indy100 has contacted Michael Gove and his representatives for comment.