Covid inquiry live: Michael Gove apologises for government pandemic mistakes that caused ‘so much pain’

Michael Gove has told the Covid inquiry that the virus posed “a different set of challenges” to a flu pandemic the government had prepared for.

The former Cabinet Office minister said the government was “not as well prepared as we should have been”.

He went on to say “this is probably going outside the remit of the inquiry”, but said: “There is a significant body of judgment that believes the virus itself was manmade.”

Inquiry lead counsel Hugo Keith KC said it was a “very divisive issue” and “we’re not going to go there”.

Michael Gove has praised Matt Hancock’s abilities, bucking a trend of witnesses at the Covid inquiry dumping on the former health secretary.

After a slew of allegations that Mr Hancock was serially dishonest, Mr Gove said “I know not everyone testifying toward this inquiry has”.

But he said: “I have a high opinion of Matt Hancock as a minister”.

The former minister for the Cabinet Office said “too much was asked” of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and other government departments should have been asked to help.

The Housing Secretary responds: “Only later in February that I began to feel a sense of concern about how well prepared as a country we were.

“Prior to that… the general concesus was that we were relatively well prepared as a country, those were the reassurances we were being given across Government, and I broadly took those on trust.

“I think there were some ways the Government, as a result of some exericses and steps we had taken beforehand, was in position to deal with aspects of the crisis, others areas where we were clearly weaker,

“But no I didn’t have the prescience to see in early February that we were not well prepared, I think it was only later in February and early in March that my concerns about our response mattered.”

Michael Gove has praised the government’s preparation for Brexit and vaccine rollout, but said “there are other areas where it would be quite wrong to award ourselves high marks”.

The former minister for the Cabinet Office told the Covid inquiry there were “specific failings” during the pandemic.

He said: “Governments across the developed world were dealing with a novel virus and… scrambled to appreciate quite how devastating the impact of this virus would be on their healthcare systems, on their economies, and on vulnerable people within their societies.”

He added: “Of course, mistakes and errors were made by the UK and some of them were unique and specific to the UK government.

“But I also think that we need to remember that governments everywhere made errors.”

Michael Gove has defended his conduct and that of Cabinet Office staff during the early stages of the pandemic after apologising for mistakes.

He said: “I want to stress that I and those with whom I worked were also seeking at every point, in circumstances where every decision was difficult and every course was bad, to make decisions that we felt we could in order to try to deal with an unprecedented virus and a remarkable assault on the institutions of the country.”

Michael Gove has said there were “strong personalities” in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street and “sometimes those personalities clash”.

Asked about WhatsApp messages from Simon Case describing running the government as “like taming wild animals”, Mr Gove said members of Mr Johnson’s top team were “being assertive” to deal with the challenge posed by Covid.

He told the inquiry into the pandemic: “Almost every number 10 operation has had, by its nature, strong personalities.

“Sometimes those personalities clash. Sometimes under tension, humans express themselves in ways which with the benefit of hindsight, they regret.”

Michael Gove has apologised to victims and bereaved families, as he accepts mistakes were made.

The former minister for the cabinet office, who now serves as levelling up secretary, said: “I want to take this opportunity to apologise to the victims who endured so much pain, the families who endured so much loss as a result of the government’s decisions in response to the pandemic.

“As a minister responsible for the Cabinet Office, and who was also close to many of the decisions that were made, I must take my share of responsibility for that.”

He added: “Politicians are human beings, we’re fallible, we make mistakes and we make errors.”

Michael Gove served as Minister of the cabinet office between 13 February, 2020, and 15 September, 2021 – the role, he tells the hearing, was to improve co-ordinaton of Government policy.

He said: “I had observed before taking on this role and realised very quickly upon taking on this role that the way in which the cabinet office was configured was not, to my mind, appropriate for the type of pandemic that we faced, and indeed the type of crisis that requires an effective whole of Government response.”

Michael Gove arrives ahead of his appearance at the Covid Inquiry.

The UK’s Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will be questioned at phase 2 of the Covid-19 Inquiry over decision-making in Downing Street during the pandemic.

We’re bring you live coverage here

Ahead of Michael Gove giving evidence today, let’s jut look back at one of the big stories from the inqury last week.

Progressor Dame Angela McLean, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said Boris Johnson’s government repeatedly made the same mistake of “watching and waiting” before taking action in the face of soaring infections during the pandemic.

Dame Angela criticised a “lack of appreciation that very quick decisions were needed” and said she believed this was the “most significant shortcoming” in decision-making during the pandemic.

She told the inquiry: “If you wait until the thing you’re worried about is really, really bad and growth is exponential and fast, you can very easily end up with things twice as bad at the hospital door, even if you put in a brilliant intervention.”