Michael Gove criticised for housing Holocaust denier David Irving's book

Michael Gove's bookshelf (left) and Michael Gove (right) - Credit: Archant

Michael Gove and his wife have been criticised for housing a Holocaust denier’s book after showcasing the couple’s bookshelf on Twitter.

Michael Gove and his wife, Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, have come under heavy fire after a photo of their bookcase revealed the couple had a copy of Holocaust denier David Irving’s The War Path.

The snap – posted by Vine on Twitter – showed the couple’s questionable taste in literature, which included books by authors such as right-wing libertarian Ayn Rand and Charles A. Murray and Richard Herrnstein, who penned a book on class structures and race, called The Bell Curve.

Twitter went ablaze with comments. Mic Wright wrote: ”The War Path’ is the companion volume to ‘Hitler’s War’, a book David Irving — the Holocaust denier and Nazi fanboy — described as an attempt to save Hitler’s reputation from slanderous historians. And there is it on the Vine/Gove bookshelves.’

Mick Muldoon said: ‘David Irving? Really? Are you going to justify that?’

BBC journalist Hicham Yezza posted: ‘David Irving, the Bell Curve, Atlas Shrugged… if this had been on ‘Through the Keyhole’ I’d have guessed Anders Breivik.’

Julian Hitchcock noticed the couple’s lack of scientific literature: ‘Not a single book on science, literature or art. Just vacuous political memoir and the mogodonic Atlas Shrugged. Please spare us the other 20.’

One Twitter user wrote: ‘Holocaust denying books are not illegal, nor should any book be made illegal. However, the choice of books tells a whole lot about people. An example, if I saw David Icke book in someone’s house, I would be very quickly looking for an excuse to leave.’

Others disagreed. One, Dr Christian DeFeo, said: ‘My bookshelves contains books by a lot of different thinkers, not all of whom I agree with. But the key word is ‘thinker”, not ‘kneejerk bigot’ like David Irving. Gove and Vine actually spent money on having that book and kept it on their shelves.’