PPE Gove was lobbied by top recipient of contracts via VIP lane

Michael Gove was lobbied by the firm that became the single biggest recipient of PPE contracts through the VIP lane in 2020 in the weeks before it was awarded the first of a series of deals worth £680m, new emails reveal.

- Rowena Mason

Emails released by the government show Gove, then a Cabinet Office minister, had a phone call with a founder of Unispace, an office interior design firm, on 24 March 2020 - the day after the first national lockdown was announced. Unispace was at that point controlled by the Australian businessman Gareth Hales - the son of the global leader of the Plymouth Brethren Christian sect, Bruce D Hales and another church member, Anthony Hazell.

Firms linked to Plymouth Brethren figures overall won more than £2bn of UK testing and PPE contracts during the pandemic, the Open and Candid blog has calculated. The Plymouth Brethren has about 50,000 members worldwide and follows a doctrine of separation from the outside world.

The emails show that a "founder" of Unispace, whose name is redacted, spoke to Gove and followed up with an email later that day outlining his offer, and saying he was "praying fervently for all men and for you and the Conservative party at this difficult time".