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Tory Michael Gove has been branded a hypocrite for attacking "identity politics" - after warning 77million Turkish people would be able to come to Britain.

The Brexiteer was accused of "brass neck" for his claim in a speech today on how to preserve a united UK after Brexit .

Environment Secretary Mr Gove complained about "identitarians" who "stand against" core principles of maintaining the Union of the UK.

"There is an increasing tendency on left and right, in North America and across Europe, for people to look at political questions through the prism of identity," he moaned.

"The identitarians want to move away from liberal principles of equal treatment for all, colourblindness, and respect for individual rights."

Picking out the SNP and UKIP, he added: "Those who embrace identity politics want to pit their group against others".

(Image: Internet Unknown)

Mr Gove fronted the official Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Vote Leave produced hugely controversial posters that declared: "Turkey (population 76million) is joining the EU".

Mr Gove himself singled out the country as a security risk at the time.

He said two weeks before the referendum: "With the terrorism threat that we face only growing, it is hard to see how it could possibly be in our security interests to open visa-free travel to 77million Turkish citizens and to create a border-free zone from Iraq, Iran and Syria to the English Channel.

"It is even harder to see how such a course is wise when extremists everywhere will believe that the West is opening its borders to appease an Islamist government."

(Image: PA)

Labour MP Jo Stevens, a backer of the anti-Brexit group Best For Britain, said today: "Michael Gove has some brass neck.

"He led a grubby, dog whistle referendum campaign whose aim was to divide the country explicitly using identity politics.

"Today, Michael Gove has created a word encapsulating his nasty campaign during a speech about strengthening the union.

"Irony is officially dead.”

Challenged directly on his claim today, given what he said about Turkey, Mr Gove said: "The reason why I think the Leave campaign won was people wanted to make sure we could have control of our borders, of our taxes, of our laws.

"All of that was part of a broader campaign to restore faith in our democratic institutions."

It came as Mr Gove argued the Brexit vote had slowed the rise of identity politics rather than making it worse.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

Earlier this month a top UN official said the “environment” around the Brexit vote has exposed people to racism.

But Mr Gove insisted: "The referendum campaign has led to Britain becoming more welcoming towards migration and more open to new people working here."

He told a conference by think tank Policy Exchange: "Another feature of unionism, the explicit embrace of diversity has strengthened since Brexit.

"Britain has become more welcoming to migration since the Brexit vote as opinion research has confirmed.

"The act of taking back control has allowed British citizens to show that they can be more welcoming to new arrivals if allowed to be rather than required to be.

(Image: YouTube)

"And now Britain is one of those EU nations with the warmest attitude towards migration, mirroring the attitudes in sister countries across the globe such as Canada and New Zealand."

Mr Gove said he did not believe Brexit would lead to Northern Ireland exiting the UK, and suggested support for Scottish independence had fallen.

He said: "Brexit has, certainly so far, strengthened unionist currency in our politics, not weakened it.

"Since the vote to leave the European Union in 2016, support for Scotland leaving the United Kingdom has diminished."

Mr Gove said Prime Minister Theresa May was absolutely determined to find the right answer for "delicate" Brexit issues relating to the Northern Irish border.