Michael Gove has been slapped down at the Covid inquiry for suggesting the virus may have been man-made.
Asked about the government’s lack of preparation for coronavirus as the pandemic unfolded, Mr Gove admitted the government was “not as well prepared as we should have been”.
“The nature of our preparation was for a flu pandemic,” he told the inquiry.
But Mr Gove, who was chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during the pandemic, extraordinarily went on to suggest the virus may have been man-made.
The veteran minister said: “It turned out that we were not as well prepared as we should have been, ideally.
“The nature of the fact the virus was novel … and this probably goes beyond the remit of the inquiry, but there is a significant body of judgment that believes the virus itself was man-made.
“And that presents a set of challenges as well.”
Mr Gove was reprimanded by the Covid inquiry’s lead counsel, Hugo Keith KC, who said it was not the place to discuss the matter.
He said: “It forms no part of the terms of reference of this inquiry Mr Gove, to address that somewhat divisive issue, so we are not going to go there.”
Mr Gove said it was important to reflect that the virus presented “a series of new challenges that required the science to adjust”.
Mr Gove is one of the most senior members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet to give evidence to the current module of the pandemic, which is examining decision-making at the heart of government.
He began his evidence by apologising to Covid victims and bereaved families for government “errors” during the pandemic, as he defended Mr Johnson’s Downing Street operation against claims of dysfunctionality.
The senior Tory, who was also Cabinet Office minister when the pandemic began in 2020, said he took some responsibility for the “mistakes” made at the top level of politics when the crisis unfolded.
Giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Gove 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.
“As a minister responsible for the Cabinet Office, and was also close to many of the decisions that were made, I must take my share of responsibility for that.
“Politicians are human beings. We’re fallible. We make mistakes and we make errors. I am sure that the inquiry will have an opportunity to look in detail at many of the errors I and others made.”
But the Cabinet minister went on to defend his conduct and that of Cabinet Office staff, saying there were no easy decisions to be made at the time.
“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.”
Mr Gove also sought to play down accusations levelled repeatedly during the inquiry that Mr Johnson’s No 10 was mired in chaos.
He was questioned by lead counsel to the Covid-19 Inquiry Hugo Keith KC about WhatsApp messages by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case saying working with Mr Johnson’s team was like “taming wild animals”.
Mr Gove said that while there were “strong personalities” in Downing Street under Mr Johnson, “you will always have – it’s in the nature of politics – strong views, sometimes punchily expressed”.
“The nature of decision-making in any organisation under pressure means that people do sometimes need to be a little bit direct,” he said.
