Michael Gove given £320k three-year contract for limo to drive him round

09 December 2023 , 19:33

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Michael Gove was provided with a private car at a cost of £107,000 a year (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Michael Gove was provided with a £320,000 chauffeur-driven limousine to drive him around during the second wave of Covid, documents have revealed.

The “executive car service” - unusually supplied by a private company - guaranteed Mr Gove a top of the line Jaguar XJL saloon car and his own dedicated driver. All but the most senior Cabinet Ministers are usually expected to use cars provided by the Government Car Service’s (GCS) pool of vehicles.

Lower ranked ministers usually don’t get a dedicated driver, and must make do with the GCS ‘pool’ of cars. While Mr Gove was a member of the Cabinet, as Cabinet Office Minister, other ministers in previous years would have been expected to use the pool.

But in Autumn 2020, a contract was drawn up to provide Mr Gove with a dedicated car on a three year contract worth £107,000 a year. The Cabinet Office would not say why Mr Gove was given a privately supplied car, rather than one from the Government fleet.

"Bookings for the service", the contract stipulated, "are made directly between the Minister’s Diary Secretary and the supplier’s driver via regular phone or text messages throughout the day. The type of journeys undertaken are typically short journeys across London. e.g. from the Minister’s home address to the Houses of Parliament."

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On request, the driver would also be told to pick up Gove's ministerial red box to take it to his home address or to the Cabinet Office.

Mr Gove, who was recently mobbed by pro-Palestinian protesters in Victoria Station, had special provisions built into the November 2020 contract to protect him from similar incidents during the pandemic.

"The Supplier’s driver", the contract said, "will apply reasonable endeavours to safeguard the Minister during official journeys."

"This will include: driving to a safe location, as soon as possible, in the event of any untoward/unwanted attention from the public; [and] locking the vehicle’s doors to prevent them from being opened externally and ensuring all windows are closed, in the event of any untoward/unwanted attention from the public."

The Department for Transport (DfT), which provides the service, is supposed to publish the cost of pool cars to each department annually, but the most recent available data is from 2016.

At that time, the cost of three cars provided to the Cabinet Office was £181,486 - around £60,000 per car, per year.

And this operating cost is likely to have reduced in recent years as the GCS replaced its fleet with electric and hybrid vehicles.

While the contract was initially put in place for Mr Gove, it was moved to the Housing and Communities department in January 2021, and then again to the Department for International Trade (now the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in October 2022.

DBT have since extended the contract until June 2024.

A government spokesperson said: “Ministerial transportation can be provided from other suppliers, beyond the government car service. All contract processes have been followed and all contracts are published online as part of our commitment to transparency.”