Covid Inquiry: Michael Gove says Cabinet Office had become "the government's nanny" before Covid struck

The Cabinet Office was not ready to handle the Covid-19 pandemic after evolving into "the government's nanny", Michael Gove has said.

Giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry today (28 November) former minister for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove, admitted that said Cabinet Office was not set up to deal with Covid-19 when the pandemic struck - a failing which led to "so much loss" for UK families. He told the inquiry panel that the Cabinet Office "did not exercise authority" throughout the government as it reported to him, the prime minister and the Cabinet Office secretary.

"I saw that the way the Cabinet Office was configured was not appropriate for the type of pandemic we faced, and the type of crisis that requires a whole government response," he said. "The structure of the Cabinet Office is flawed. It has operated in a way that is not as effective as it should be.

"It did not exercise the authority that it should have done across government. That is a structural issue.

"There has been a tendency among successive prime ministers to shove in responsibilities that don't appear to fit elsewhere. It [Cabinet Office] has led on drugs policy, on policy towards charities - it becomes a Mary Poppins bag that prime ministers will shove into things they require to be dealt with by the government's nanny."

Gove was appointed to the role in February 2020, as part of a cabinet reshuffle by then-prime minister Boris Johnson. Prior to that, he was working as the Duchy of Lancaster, drawing up plans for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

"It [Brexit] was my sole focus," he told the panel. He then suggested that some of the Brexit preparations inadvertently helped the government with its Covid-19 response.

He added that he wished he had made more changes to the structure of the Cabinet Office, as this could have reduced the impact Covid had on the country.

Gove said: "I would like to apologise to the victims who have suffered so much loss as a result of the mistakes made by government in response to the pandemic. I must take my share of the responsibility for that."