Your Covid apology is accepted, Mr Gove. But the public still demands justice

Editorial: Michael Gove gave a good account of himself at the Covid inquiry – but he and his colleagues still deserve to be censured, apology or no apology

Michael Gove floated the theory at the Covid-19 inquiry that the virus was ‘man-made’ (PA)

If I may… apologise to the victims who endured so much pain, the families who endured so much loss as a result of the mistakes that were made by government in response to the pandemic. As a minister responsible for the Cabinet Office, and who was also close to many of the decisions that were made, I must take my share of responsibility for that. Politicians are human beings. We’re fallible. We make mistakes and we make errors.”

There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Michael Gove’s apology for errors made by the government during the pandemic. It was not what might be called a “Tony Blair” or “Priti Patel” apology – “I’m sorry you’re upset but not sorry about what I did.”

If not actually on behalf of those who served in the Johnson administration at the time, it still represents a welcome, if overdue, expression of deep regret for the failure to respond to the pandemic – and, it’s implied – at all stages of the emergency. It would have been better if the man leading the government at the time, Boris Johnson, had issued such an apology long ago, but seeing as it proved so difficult to get him to take responsibility for Partygate, or indeed much else, that was hoping for too much. Mr Gove’s unexpectedly unequivocal statement puts some pressure on Mr Johnson to follow suit when he appears before the Covid-19 inquiry.