MICHAEL Gove has been challenged on his statement to Scottish journalists that taxpayer funds were not used for party polling in light of a document seen by The National.
The issue led to the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford yesterday tabling an urgent question in the Commons urging the cabinet secretary to launch an independent investigation into “blatant misuse of public money for political purposes”.
Speaking at a news conference from Aberdeen on Monday, Gove was asked several times whether he had spent Covid-19 funds on polling to gauge public opinion on the Union.
He told The National: “We don’t use taxpayer funds for party political polling”, adding that their focus had been on sending out an “effective public health message”, which was “the aim behind the investment”.
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However, The National has seen a witness statement from a senior civil servant in the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office communications team, who was involved in the Covid communications hub, which raises questions over Gove’s statement.
The High Court has already ruled that Gove broke the law by giving a contract to a communications agency run by long-time associates of him and Dominic Cummings.
In a case brought by the Good Law Project, it found the decision to award a £560,000 contract to Public First was tainted by “apparent bias” and was unlawful.
In their statement, the civil servant said it had been confirmed in early July last year that Public First should be commissioned to carry out work with additional focus groups to cover policy and narrative on “core policy areas” linked to the Covid Renewal programme.
The witness wrote: “Independently around this time, I also received an urgent request for Union-related research from the office of the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP.
“In response, I asked Public First to conduct some testing of people’s attitudes on this issue.
“There was an element of Covid-19 to this testing which at the time we considered was sufficient to enable us to use the existing contract [with Public First] … However, this particular piece of Union research was urgent and had some links to Covid-19 and given that the contract with Public First was in place and it was well within their capabilities, we as a team thought that we could use them to start the work before returning to the procurement.”
Calling for an inquiry, Blackford told the Commons that just as the Prime Minister had refused to sack his health secretary, he had also failed to act on this scandal.
“No matter how hard they might try to sweep this under the carpet this scandal isn’t going away,” he said.
“This morning I have written to the cabinet secretary urging him to launch an independent investigation into this blatant misuse of public money for political purposes … If the UK Government has nothing to hide, will the minster join me in supporting this investigation by the cabinet secretary and will she co-operate with it?
“The truth and this Government are distant strangers and that comes as no surprise when we remember the Prime Minister’s been sacked not once but twice for lying.” Blackford’s comments led to an intervention by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who asked him to withdraw them.
However, the SNP MP continued: “This isn’t media speculation and isn’t even a political accusation. It is a plain fact. It comes directly from official evidence that has been published in the High Court.”
He demanded answers to several key questions, including whether the Prime Minister knew about the polling and who the results were shared with. He also questioned when the results would be published in full and how many other pieces of political research were ordered during the pandemic – and at what cost to the public purse.
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Blackford then cited yesterday’s report on the issue in The National, and added: “We know from the witness statement that these things are not true. The truth and this government are distant strangers, and that should come as no surprise that we remember the Prime Minister has been sacked, not once but twice, for lying.”
Gove was still in Scotland yesterday and it was left to Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez to respond on his behalf. She said: “How we spend taxpayers’ money matters very deeply to public trust. It’s true to say that the Government faced a number of challenges at the height of the pandemic and I think we should be open about those.”
Gove’s office said he had already addressed the question about Public First’s research, and added: “We don’t have anything further to add to that.”
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