Michael Gove has defended spending Covid cash on Union polling, dismissing accusations that the Cabinet Office has misused public funds.
High Court papers released last week revealed that during the height of the pandemic Mr Gove instructed civil servants to commission polls on “attitudes to the UK Union” using the emergency contract given to Public First for pandemic research.
The SNP have since called for a public inquiry into the £560,000 contract, but Mr Gove has denied any wrongdoing.
He told us that it was “right” to commission such work, adding: “The contract was assigned in order to ensure that the UK Government was in a position to be able to make sure that vital messages like ‘hands, face, space’ and ‘protecting the NHS’ were communicated effectively to the public, because clear messaging is an important part of public health overall.”
Michael Gove has gone for the 'not me guv' defence on this, I asked him why he signed off on Covid contracts being used for Union polling, he said: 'The contract was actually signed by others and not by me'https://t.co/DTEpdkdUti
— Dan O'Donoghue (@MrDanDonoghue) June 28, 2021
Asked if it was morally right to use Covid cash for political polling, Mr Gove said: “The decision to award the contracts was not my decision, though I think it was the right decision.
“Indeed the courts pointed out that it was perfectly legitimate to use the procurement process that we did.
“The second thing to say is that we don’t indulge in party political polling and the third thing to say is that the Scottish Government themselves conducted polling into attitudes about the UK Government and the Scottish Government and their respective handling of Covid.”
He added: “Governments doing that are not governments that have lost their moral compass.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford responded: “Despite the government’s best attempts to play this down, the reality is that this scandal will not disappear.
“There are very serious questions for the prime minister and Cabinet Office minister to answer over how they siphoned off public money for their own political purposes.
“There must be accountability. If the Tory government genuinely believes it has nothing to hide or that it has done nothing wrong, then the Cabinet Office minister will set the record straight and the prime minister will commit to a full public inquiry.”