MICHAEL Gove defended a “salty” Conservative Party social media post that attacks Labour with an image of a BBC News presenter unwittingly giving the middle finger during a broadcast.

Asked on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky, the Communities Secretary said: “It’s certainly a salty intervention in public debate.

“But I think the important thing to bear in mind is that our political conversation takes place in a variety of different ways, on different platforms, and it’s important both to engage people where they are but also a very powerful point is made is that Labour have nothing to say on the question of illegal migration.

“I think that anyone who has ever looked at my social media will see that I am no social media ninja. My social media is herbivorous, to put it mildly.

“But on social media you have a lively debate and that is a powerful contribution to a very lively debate.”

Gove insisted that top lawyers have said the Government’s new legislation aimed at sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is “sound”.

It comes despite being dealt the fresh blow of a legal assessment for the Tory right concluding the Rwanda legislation is not fit for purpose.

Sir Bill Cash, who has chaired a legal examination being waited on by many in the party, has signalled that the Bill is not “sufficiently watertight” despite Rishi Sunak hoping it will revive his flagship asylum plan.

Gove then suggested his party has had a “relative success” already responding to illegal migration.

Speaking about the proposed legislation, Gove said: “It’s pretty tough actually if you look at what we’re saying.”

He added: “Of course we will look at what any colleague and, indeed, any eminent lawyer says but whether it’s Jonathan Sumption or David Wolfson, they are pretty clear, this law is sound.”