UK court rules Michael Gove acted unlawfully over Covid contract

Cabinet minister hired a company linked to senior government figures

British Cabinet Minister Michael Gove appointed the company Public First. Reuters

UK Cabinet Minister Michael Gove acted unlawfully in his handling of a government contract in the early months of the Covid pandemic, the High Court in London ruled.

Communications agency Public First, whose founders had personal ties to Mr Gove and government adviser Dominic Cummings, was hired in June 2020 to analyse public opinion on the crisis.

The maximum value of the contract was £840,000 ($1.1 million) but the figure paid to Public First was £564,390.

The court said Mr Gove gave rise to “apparent bias” by failing to consider other candidates for the role.

The connections between the company’s leaders and senior political figures “might be perceived to compromise their impartiality and independence”, the court said.

Mrs Justice O’Farrell said the Good Law Project, which brought the case, was entitled to a judgment that the awarding of the contract was unlawful.

Jo Maugham, the director of the Good Law Project, welcomed the High Court ruling on Wednesday.

“This is not government for the public good – it is government for the good of friends of the Conservative party,” he said.

Mr Gove had argued that the awarding of the contract was based on Public First’s expertise and said there was no time for a full procurement process.

The court accepted the pressure that ministers were under but said they still needed to “demonstrate a fair and impartial process of selection”.

No other agencies were contacted by Mr Gove to see whether they could do the same work at short notice, the court found.

This would have led a reasonable observer to “conclude that there was a real possibility or a real danger that the decision-maker was biased”.

Mr Cummings denied there was any bias on his part.

“Obviously, I did not request Public First be brought in because they were my friends,” he said.

“The fact that I knew the key Public First people well was a bonus, not a problem, as in such a high pressure environment trust is very important, as well as technical competence.”

In February, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock was found to have acted unlawfully by not revealing details of pandemic contracts.

The court said the public was entitled to see where public money was going and what it was spent on.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under scrutiny after reports he had promised entrepreneur James Dyson that he would fix tax issues for ventilator production.

Mr Johnson said he made “no apology at all for shifting heaven and Earth” to secure supplies of ventilators.