UK Government did not use pandemic to strengthen union, Gove tells inquiry
The Levelling Up Secretary did suggest that Scottish ministers diverged on certain policies to enhance the case for Scottish independence.
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Your support makes all the difference.The UK Government did not use the Covid-19 pandemic to strengthen support for the union, Michael Gove has said, as he argued Scottish ministers diverged on policy to advance their āpolitical agendaā.
The Levelling Up Secretary told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry as it sits in Edinburgh that language used in WhatsApp messages between former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and her then chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, about starting a āgood old-fashioned rammyā with the UK Government showed clear ātemptationā to use the pandemic for political gain.
He said: āSome of the language used, the desire to have a āgood old-fashioned rammy with the UK Governmentā and some of the other language used ā¦ does lead me to believe that at that point, there was a desire to pursue differentiation for the sake of advancing a political agenda.ā
He added: āThere are, and were, occasions when the Scottish Government was thinking politically, as we can see, and, of course, it is the case the SNP has a political mission to achieve Scotlandās independence, i.e. destroy the United Kingdom and it would be naive not to be aware that highly skilled politicians, including those at the top of the Scottish Government, might well see what they perceive to be political advantage at certain points.
āBut, I think, itās important to note that while that did happen at certain points, the day-to-day management of the pandemic preoccupied them as it did other ministers.ā
Mr Gove, who served as a Cabinet Office minister during the pandemic, with a focus on intergovernmental relations, told the inquiry the relationship between the UK and the devolved administrations was for the āmost part constructiveā in relation to the day-to-day management of the pandemic.
However, counsel to the inquiry Jamie Dawson KC later showed Mr Gove a Government document produced by him entitled āstate of the unionā.
It showed the 70% of the surveyās respondents believed the Scottish Government were implementing the right pandemic procedures, compared to 27% for the UK Government.
Mr Gove wrote of changing āthe perceptionā in the report, adding: āThereās a real opportunity to outline how being part of the union has significantly reduced the hardship faced by individuals and businesses.ā
Asked by Mr Dawson if he was āsetting out a strategy to use the Covid-19 pandemic to strengthen the union, Mr Gove said: āI think itās the case that Iām seeking to make sure that people appreciate the way in which the existence of the United Kingdom and its institutions has enabled us to deal effectively with the Covid pandemic.ā
He added that the UK Government had to address the appearance it was āhiding its light under a bushelā.
Later, Mr Gove said the Scottish Government ādid not want intergovernmental relations to workā.
Mr Gove also told the inquiry: āI think, almost all of the time decisions were made in the public health benefit of the people of Scotland.
āBut I think the Scottish Government believed that its handling of these matters was somehow superior to that of the UK Government and that people would appreciate that and be prompted to think how much better might life be if we gave the Scottish Government more powers and moved further down the path to independence.ā
He also told the inquiry that former finance secretary Kate Forbes had been one of the āmost constructiveā ministers in the Scottish Government, but former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was āsometimes politicalā in her correspondence with UK counterparts.
He also said former prime minister Boris Johnson was āirritatedā by Ms Sturgeonās ādivergentā decision to ban large gatherings shortly after a UK Cobra meeting had concluded.
The inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett, continues.