Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove Speaks to T&G on Second Referendum and More

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove hasn't ruled out a second independence referendum for Scotland when asked on Times Radio if there would be one "when the time is right."

Speaking to Tom Newton Dunn and Isabel Hardman he was asked if he would rule out a second vote and replied:

What they (the Scottish people) should take away, I hope, is that I'm not going to be side-tracked into a debate on the constitution when there are far more important things. During the course of the election campaigns that have just past in Scotland, Wales and England the number one question was how can we make sure that we recover effectively from the pandemic and now that Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have been re-elected respectively as first ministers, I will be picking up the work we've engaged in with them over the course of the last year in making that our focus. I'm not going to allow the UK government's eye to be taken off the ball when it comes to dealing with this central question.

On whether social care reform will form part of this week's Queen's speech:

We're working to make sure that we have an effective social care plan at the moment. And that work is going on. And so by the end of the year you will have a specific social care plan that is heading for the statute books at the very least. We want to make sure that we can get cross-party support for it. That is critical. That's the point the Prime Minister has always made. The more support we can get for it across parties, and I hope we do, the quicker we can be.

And on whether he would "chide" the Duchess of Cornwall who has admitted hugging her grandchildren, despite coronavirus restrictions:

I love the Duchess of Cornwall and I would never criticise her...She is absolutely a fantastic person and someone who devotes untold hours to supporting charities to supporting good works and who's been a great champion throughout this pandemic, for the power of reading, the power of friendship, the power of family. She's a wonderful, wonderful person.