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Michael Gove has refused to condemn Viktor Orban, amid a row over Tory MEPs backing the far-right Hungarian leader in the European Parliament.

Conservative MEPs opposed a motion in the European Parliament condemning Orban for attacking Muslim and Jewish minorities and suppressing free speech and press freedom.

The Tories were the only governing party in Western Europe to vote in support of the Hungarian PM.

Mr Orban has been accused of fostering anti-semitism with his “relentless campaign” against the Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros.

One of the UK’s leading Jewish organisations, the Board of Deputies, said it was disappointed Conservative MEPs had voted in defence of Hungary’s far-right government.

There were claims Tory MEPs voted against the motion to censure Hungary because Orban could be helpful to Britain in the Brexit negotiations.

Orban himself arrived at the meeting of the European Parliament saying: “We would like to have a fair Brexit because we love the British and because we cooperated always well – and you deserve a good deal, a fair deal.”

Asked if he was pleased to have the support of Mr Orban, Mr Gove told the BBC's Andrew Marr: “It’s not for me to rank a league table of EU leaders and say that one is my favourite and that one I have less time for, because I believe in cooperative diplomacy. Even generosity of spirit towards our EU partners.”

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

Host Andrew Marr listed a string of Orban’s most horrific abuses, including describing migrants as “poison” and Muslims “invaders”, making it a criminal offence for lawyers to represent asylum seekers and targeting the judiciary and media in Hungary.

Marr asked: “This is the man your party in the European Parliament has decided to support - why?”

Gove argued it was not true to say his party’s MEPs had supported Orban.

“No it’s not true, Andrew,” he insisted “And it’s critically important that we realise this.

“There was a vote in the European Parliament, but there is a long standing principle of a number of MEPs from different countries and from different parties, not to believe that the European Parliament should interfere in, or censure, the internal democracy of a particular country.

“You or I might have particular views about other countries, but the European Parliament and those within it, British MEPs and others, believe that that’s the wrong way of expressing criticism.”

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

But Gove also refused to personally condemn Orban.

He said: “My view is that the British are traditionally accused of playing divide and rule, and picking off individual countries. I’m not going to play that game.

“I have views, but I’m not going to be drawn on individual European Leaders.”

“Because you need his support,” suggested Marr.

Gove replied: “No, because it would be wrong for me at a time when we need solidarity against a number of different threats…we need to make sure that our voice is clear, our position on these issues is absolutely clear and resonant, and I don’t believe that individual criticisms of the kind that you’re understandably tempting me to make necessarily help us in ensuring that we get solidarity on the issues that count and the best deal for Britain as we leave the European Union.”

And he insisted that his party’s MEP’s voting against the censure motion was “very, very far from supporting or endorsing the position that he takes.”