' drake ford was focused on... mr mr drake ford was focused on... mr reckford was told that borisjohnson did not meet with devolved ministers at the start of the pandemic in case it gives the false impression... he went on to say that it was a huge issue for him that borisjohnson wasn't in the room with the devolved ministers at all for the very first part of the pandemic. he found that a real issue and were struggling with that. there was meetings with michael gove, who was essentially the deputy back then, and he did find those meetings very helpful. however, he believed mr gove could not actually make any formal decisions himself, he was only able to really have an influence rather than a definitive impact. actually, there was quite a cutting remark in regards to borisjohnson, he described mr gove is a skilful centre forward without a team lined up centre forward without a team lined up behind him, with the manager, iea borisjohnson, largely absent up behind him, with the manager, iea boris johnson, largely absent from the table. clearly not very