Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were sold at an Oxford uni ‘slave auction’

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were sold as slaves in a uni slave auction whilst at Oxford.

An Oxford Union “slave auction” held in 1987 to raise money for Shelter was described as “an opportunity to buy your favourite Union person for the evening”, in a Cherwell article from the time dug up by the Observer.

Johnson was not present but was sold in his absence, whilst Gove “attracted enthusiastic bidding”.

Gove also purchased a fellow student and was said to have “got himself a bargain at £6”.

Johnson and Gove, now Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Minister respectively, were both heavily involved with the debating society during their time at uni.

Uni slave auctions have attracted controversy in recent years. Academics at a conference held last year at the University of Liverpool re-enacted a slave auction, which was branded a “shameful day in the history of British Clinical Psychology.”

In 2017, a halls at Loughborough cancelled a slave auction event, to be followed by a “Slave night”. The chair who organised the event said she “completely didn’t realise the slave night was offensive.”

Loughborough uni’s ACS said it was “appalled that such atrocities could be condoned especially during times of oppression against ethnic minority’s worldwide.”

Commenting on Gove and Johnson’s involvement in the Oxford slave auction, Labour MP Clive Lewis told the Observer: “When you understand what both men and their party are enabling today and preparing for tomorrow, their past actions come as much less of a surprise.”

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