Michael Gove apologised on behalf of the Conservative Party for the shambolic response to the Covid pandemic, but said Boris Johnson's political career shouldn't be over as a result
09:57, 21 Nov 2025Updated 09:57, 21 Nov 2025
Boris Johnson's political career should not be over in spite of the damning Covid Inquiry findings, Michael Gove has insisted.
The Tory peer rejected claims that a toxic and sexist climate under his old boss contributed to the Government's shambolic response. But the Conservative grandee - who was in Mr Johnson's cabinet during the pandemic - apologised on behalf of his party for the botched handling of the crisis.
He said bereaved families would feel an "understandable anger" over failings during the crisis. He admitted that words and actions in No10 were "far from ideal", but said in a crisis leaders don't act "in the manner of a Jane Austin novel".
Lord Gove also poured doubt on Baroness Heather Hallett's conclusion that 23,000 lives could have been saved if the then-PM had acted faster. Asked if his old boss's political career is over because of the report, Lord Gove said: "I don't think it should be, no."
He continued: "Because I think that the most important point to bear in mind overall is that while Boris's style of decision making was not to everyone's taste, what he was doing was wrestling, as everyone now recognises, with an enormously difficult question about the curtailment of liberty versus the maintenance of access to health care." And he said the former PM's "drive" had led to a vaccine rollout.
But he conceded that very serious mistakes had been made. Lord Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "Can I just take the opportunity which you've given me to apologise to all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. And many others who made huge sacrifices, who will feel, I'm sure, a sense of not just grief but understandable anger as they read some of the conclusions in this report.
"And I want to, on behalf of the government and the Conservative Party, to apologise for mistakes that were made during that period."
Lady Hallett's report said that a sexist and toxic culture contributed to the Government's poor response in the early days of the pandemic. Lord Gove hit back: "No, I don't accept that either.
"I do certainly think that there were moments when voices were raised, words were used, attitudes were struck that were far from ideal.
"But the business of government during a crisis can't be carried on in the manner of a Jane Austen novel."
The blistering Covid Inquiry report found chaos at the heart of government and a failure to take the virus seriously cost 23,000 lives in the first wave of the pandemic. Lady Hallett said Mr Johnson presided over a "toxic" culture in Number 10 and regularly changed his mind - while cabinet members including Health Secretary Matt Hancock and key scientists all failed to act with the urgency needed.
Baroness Hallett's report on the government response to Covid accused Mr Johnson of being too "optimistic" in his outlook in the early months of 2020. And she said his special adviser, Dominic Cummings, used "offensive, sexualised and misogynistic" language as he "poisoned" the atmosphere in Downing Street.
The inquiry found that the first and second lockdowns of the pandemic were not inevitable - but the government was left with no choice after failing to implement measures such as social distancing and household quarantine earlier. Not imposing any lockdown at all when it became apparent there was no choice would have "led to an unacceptable loss of life", she wrote.
But bringing the first one in a week earlier, on March 16, would have cut deaths in the first wave to July "by 48% - equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths" in England.
The report found the four governments across the UK did not take the virus seriously enough until it was "too late". And by the end of January 2020 it "should have been clear that the virus posed a serious and immediate threat".
February 2020 was "a lost month" and the lack of urgency overall in government was "inexcusable". As the pandemic unfolded, Mr Hancock "gained a reputation among senior officials and advisers at 10 Downing Street for overpromising and underdelivering".