The official explained the move as Labour’s attempt to distract public from the anti-Semitism allegations against it.
"In a desperate desire to pin responsibility on the Home Secretary, in a particularly narrow fashion, Labour is attempting to weaponize this. I think that is quite wrong," Gove said in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today.
Gove stressed that the secretary had not seen the memo in question and suggested that there was a series of leaks that contributed to Labour's partisan campaign.
"There’s a campaign against the government and against the home secretary. What’s not surprising is that this happens at the same time as the Labour party is mired in allegations of its failure to deal with antisemitism," the official noted, referring to a recent wave of anti-Semitism allegations against the Labour party.
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Rudd told parliament on Wednesday that there were no deportation targets in the United Kingdom. On Thursday, however, she was forced to backtrack on her remarks when information about the existence of these targets was leaked to the public.
On Thursday, UK Labour Party urged the secretary to resign over ill-treatment of people belonging to the so-called Windrush generation, who arrived in the United Kingdom from the Caribbean under free movement policies between the 1940s and 1970s.
READ MORE: Windrush Scandal: Shadow Minister Urges UK Home Secretary to Resign
The day after, Rudd apologized for not being aware of her department’s migrant removal targets and promised to answer questions in parliament next Monday. But she rejected calls to step down, saying that she would work to ensure that "our immigration policy is fair and humane."