Michael Gove spotted hitting the dancefloor at Aberdeen club night

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove surprised clubbers when he was spotted dancing in a nightclub.

Dressed in a dark suit with no tie, footage on social media shows Mr Gove dancing and throwing shapes at the Pipe club night in Aberdeen.

Pipe posted a video on Facebook which showed the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster grooving on the dancefloor, with the caption “Gove in the club.”

Adam Taylor, co-manager of Pipe, said Mr Gove had been in the O’Neill’s pub downstairs and appeared interested when he came out and heard music.

He told the PA news agency: “I asked if he wanted to come upstairs and if he liked dance music and explained to him ‘it is pretty lively music, are you sure it’s your kind of night’, making sure he actually wanted to come up.

“He said ‘I love to dance’ and I said ‘it’s £5 to come up’ and he said ‘even for the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster?'”

Mr Taylor said that, once in the club, Mr Gove threw himself into the spirit of things, dancing to the jungle and techno music.

He said: “I expected him to go up and maybe just have a couple of drinks, the pub had closed, but when I next went up he was having a real good dance, he had incredible energy and stamina, he just kept dancing the whole night.

“He was pretty much the centre of attention apart from the music by that point, everyone was trying to get photos with him, a lot of people were buying him drinks, he seemed to be having a good time.”

Aberdeen-born Mr Gove, the MP for Surrey Heath, appeared to be alone when he arrived at the venue at around 1.15am on Sunday, leaving at around 3am.

He and his journalist wife Sarah Vine announced in July that they are to split after almost 20 years of marriage.

Mr Gove and Ms Vine, a former Times arts editor, first met in 1999 and married two years later.