Housing secretary Michael Gove failed to register hospitality he enjoyed with a Conservative donor whose company he had recommended for multimillion pound PPE contracts during the Covid pandemic, the Guardian has revealed.
While still minister for the Cabinet Office, in August 2021 Gove was entertained to VIP hospitality at a Queens Park Rangers football match with former Tory MP David Meller, whose fashion products company had been awarded £164m PPE contracts following Gove’s referral in May 2020.
MPs’ code of conduct requires them to register all gifts, donations and hospitality above a £300 value, but Gove did not register the hospitality he received at the QPR match, which was organised by Meller’s son, Jonny.
When asked by the Guardian about it, a spokesperson for Gove acknowledged that he had failed to do so and apologised, saying it had been an “oversight”.
The spokesperson 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.
“Mr Gove routinely declares his attendance at such events in his role as an MP and government minister, as evidenced by other entries in his register of interests and ministerial transparency returns. He apologises for any oversight on his part.”
As the Cabinet Office minister responsible for PPE procurement during the pandemic, Gove in May 2020 recommended Meller’s company at the time, Meller Designs, as a potential PPE supplier to the government’s chief commercial officer.
The offer was referred to the government’s “VIP lane”, that gave high priority to companies recommended by ministers, Conservative MPs and peers, and officials, and six PPE contracts were awarded worth £164m.
Gove’s recommendation of Meller Designs was not yet public knowledge when in August 2021 David and Jonny Meller accompanied Gove and his son to QPR’s first match of the new football season, a 1-1 draw with Millwall.
During that week Jonny Meller had contacted one of the QPR owners, Amit Bhatia, saying that Gove had asked to be taken to the match. Jonny Meller inquired if they could pay to have seats in Bhatia’s box, explaining that it could be uncomfortable for Gove if they sat in a general area of the stadium, due to public anger at the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic.
Bhatia made his own box available, waiving any payment for it, and Gove and David Meller went to the match with their sons and some other guests.
Gove has previously registered football match hospitality: two tickets worth £2,500 from Santander Bank for the European Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City in June 2021; two tickets worth £600 from the Premier League for Chelsea’s April 2022 FA Cup semi-final victory over Crystal Palace at Wembley, and two tickets from the Premier League again in September 2023 for Chelsea’s home match against Aston Villa, valued at £1,342.10.
A QPR employee said that the club did not attach a price to Bhatia’s box because it is not sold to supporters, but a standard QPR hospitality box for that Millwall match cost £2,750 plus VAT: £3,300. However, Gove did not register the free hospitality tickets on his MP’s register.
Meller has been a substantial donor to the Conservative party, his educational charity sponsored academies when Gove was education secretary, and he supported Gove for the party leadership in 2016, donating £3,250 to his unsuccessful campaign.
Meller Designs, part of Meller’s family business until it was sold in January 2021, was a wholesaler of own-label fashion accessories to retailers, which in 2019, the year before the pandemic, made a pre-tax profit of less than £200,000. The £164m government PPE contracts boosted its revenues by 1,400% in 2020 and its profit increased to £16m in 2020. Meller and his co-owner then shared dividends of £5m.
Jonny Meller told The Guardian that he had no recollection of going to the match with Gove and declined to comment.
A government spokesperson said that ministers were not involved in procurement decisions or the awards of contracts during the emergency effort to secure PPE.
“Due diligence was carried out on all companies in advance of procurement and every company was subjected to the same checks,” they added.
