Michael Gove has apologised to victims and bereaved families for the government’s handling of the pandemic as he listed what he believed were the failings, including locking down too late.
Mr Gove, who is today giving evidence at the Covid-19 Inquiry, said the country was too slow to introduce a lockdown, accepting he should have been more “forthright” in pushing for the move.
He also said that the tier system was “inherently flawed”, there should have been more focus on the impact on children and there were errors with the procurement of personal protective equipment.
At the beginning of the session, Mr Gove, who was Cabinet Office minister and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when the pandemic began in 2020, said: “If I may… apologise to the victims who endured such pain, the families who endured so much loss as a result of the mistakes that were made by Government in response to the pandemic.”
Yet despite the acceptance of mistakes in the handling of the situation, Mr Gove refused to criticise ex-colleagues on the cabinet. He said he had a “high opinion” of former health secretary Matt Hancock and defended Boris Johnson’s “gladiatorial” decision-making.