The Communities Secretary had been placed under investigation in February
Yet another example of Tory sleaze. In the latest incident, Michael Gove has been found to have breached standards rules, after failing to register VIP hospitality he enjoyed at three football matches between 2020 and 2022.
The Communities Secretary had been placed under investigation in February after the Guardian reported that he had failed to declare VIP hospitality he had enjoyed at a football match with a Conservative donor in his register of interests. Gove had recommended the donor’s firm for multimillion-pound personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Communities Secretary had enjoyed entertainment at a Queens Park Rangers football match in 2021 with David Meller, whose company Meller Designs was awarded six PPE contracts worth £164m following Mr Gove’s referral, the newspaper reported.
Responding to the allegations at the time, a spokesperson for Mr Gove said: “Mr Gove is grateful to the Guardian for bringing this matter to his attention. He has written to the relevant parliamentary authorities to inform them of a potential omission from the register of members’ financial interests regarding two complimentary tickets he received from Queens Park Rangers Football Club to a match in August 2021.”
However, in a report published on Monday, Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg found Gove had breached Commons rules by failing to declare the hospitality within 28 days.
The report also found that Gove was late in his declaration of his position as a governor of the Ditchley Foundation, a charity which, he said, ‘works with people across the world to help sustain peace, freedom and order’.
Greenberg ruled that the breaches were “minor in nature” and that an email sent to him by Gove in March amounted to an apology. That means Gove will able to rectify his register and avoid having to apologise in parliament or be referred to a committee.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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