Factchecker finds that Michael Gove lied about court ruling

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Just another lie but for those who are genuinely interested in facts please find:

During an appearance on Sky News, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove was asked about a recent ruling at the High Court on the government’s decision to award a £560,000 contract to marketing agency Public First during the pandemic. The agency is run by former colleagues of both Mr Gove and Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to the Prime Minister.

In the interview, Mr Gove claimed that “the court found that there was no actual bias in the decision that was taken by others to award this contract […] there was no breach of the ministerial code.”

That’s wrong. Michael Gove was moving the goalposts in talking about actual bias. The court was asked to determine whether the award of the contract was unlawful because of apparent bias.

The judgment explicitly states that there was no suggestion of actual bias. It was not an issue that the court was asked to address so they did not make any finding about whether there was or wasn’t actual bias.

However, the judge held that the decision making process which led to the award of the contract did give rise to apparent bias, and so was unlawful.

The Cabinet Office has said there will be no investigation into whether there was a breach of the ministerial code as Michael Gove was not personally involved in the awarding of the contract.

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