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Michael Gove personally lobbied Government officials to ensure that the award of a multimillion pound Covid testing contract to a Conservative donor and Brexit supporter was “unblocked”.
On March 31 2020, one week after the UK entered into the first national lockdown, the then Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove received an email from Toby Baxendale – Director of the covid testing firm Ciga Healthcare.
Baxendale previously donated over £50,000 to the Conservative party, with his wife Catherine donating a further £50,000 and he was also a founding member of the right leaning think-tank the Cobden Centre.
In the email, which was disclosed to Byline Times following a freedom of Information request, Baxendale urged Gove to take action regarding his company’s bid to supply antibody tests.
The pro-Brexit businessman was highly critical of the Government’s Chief Medical Office, Chris Whitty and Chief Scientist Patrick Vallance, who he described in the email as being “hardened Remainers” who were “closed to any alternative views”.
Baxendale pushed for Gove to “act with [his] instincts and take control” of the process, against the perceived wishes of the Government’s senior health officials, claiming that by doing so the Conservative minister would “save the nation”.
The message appears to have had an effect, given just 48 hours later, Gove then emailed the former Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill and other top civil servants working within No.10 on behalf of Baxendale, urging for any delays in the contract award to Ciga to be “unblocked”.
Gove’s email to Sedwill stated that: “I was contacted by Toby Baxendale, who was encouraged personally by the PM and Matt Hancock to help, and who has sourced 1 million antibody tests from China (with a possible further 1 million in the pipeline).
“He claims to have received resistance from PHE in getting them green lighted. Have all the problems been unblocked? Are we sure we are pursuing every angle on this simultaneously?”
Within a week of Gove’s intervention Ciga Healthcare were selected by the UK Government to form a consortium of British based companies contracted by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to manufacture and develop “a home-grown [antibody] test”.
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The UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC) was established around April 8 2020, and comprised Abingdon Health, Oxford University, BBI Solutions, CIGA Healthcare and Omega Diagnostics.
On April 11 the consortium signed an initial six-month Memorandum of Understanding. Not long after the MOU was signed, contract awards began to flow to the group. On the June 1 the UK-RTC landed it’s first £10million deal to develop an new anti-body test. This was followed by a much larger £75m deal in August 2025.
The contracts awarded to the consortium were highly controversial, and subject to a legal challenge by the Good Law Project.
During the course of the high court case ‘explosive’ emails were disclosed that revealed the contracts awarded to the consortium appear to have been funnelled through the fast track “VIP Route”. Civil servants were recorded describing the Covid testing programme as “unlegit” and “no way to do business”.
Gove is no stranger to the VIP Lane scandal. In March this year, Byline Times revealed how the Cabinet Office misled the public over Michael Gove’s involvement with the PPE VIP Lane’s biggest winner.
Unispace Global were awarded £679 million in PPE deals from the Government after the company’s offer “came through” Cabinet Minister Michael Gove – contradicting the then-Government’s claims of having had no involvement.
Gove also intervened in the procurement process to assist another Brexit- supporting associate – Sir James Dyson.
Byline Times reported that Michael Gove told officials to buy 10,000 Ventilators from Dyson during the pandemic – a move described by procurement experts as an ‘Affront’ to procurement rules.
Evidence published by the Covid Inquiry reveals that the Conservative Minister was “insistent that an order” was placed with leading Brexiter Sir James Dyson’s firm.
The Cabinet Office, Lord Gove and Ciga Healthcare were approached for comment but did not respond by time of publication.
VIP Lane: Cronyism and the Pandemic by Russell Scott, is available to buy now from Byline Books.
