Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NAGGING DOUBT
Health Sec’s racing links raise questions over lockdown timing Hancock received £350,000 from donors in horse industry
M A TT Hancock is under renewed pressure over why Cheltenham Festival was allowed to go ahead this year, as the Mirror reveals his links to the horse-racing industry.
The Health Secretary has “serious questions to answer” about the controversial decision which was made despite calls for mass gatherings to be axed due to the risks of spreading Covid-19.
Letting 250,000 people attend the four-day horse-racing event, ending on March 13, is likely to be scrutinised in the independent inquiry which Boris Johnson now accepts must take place.
Mr Hancock faced criticism last week after claiming the lockdown started “precisely” on March 16 – a week before the full lockdown was announced.
The UK’S official Covid-19 death toll rose yesterday by 27 to 45,300, although the real figure is believed to be higher.
Our probe revealed Mr Hancock has benefitted from more than £350,000 in political donations from wealthy figures in horse racing. It includes £140,000 from racehorse owner Bill Gredley’s Unex property business, and £132,400 from horse auctioneer Tattersalls.
Mr Hancock was twice wined and dined for free at the festival during his time at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The
£1,450 monthly rent for his ex-constituency home, a Grade Ii-listed property on the Thurlow Estate near Newmarket in his constituency of West Suffolk, was reimbursed by taxpayers via expenses. His landlords were the Vestey family. Lord Vestey was chairman of Cheltenham Racecourse for 21 years. His son William Vestey is on the Jockey Club’s Cheltenham Racecourse
LINK William & Violet Vestey Committee, which organises the annual festival. Figures for the first month of lockdown show that Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS trust, which covers Cheltenham, recorded 125 Covid-19 deaths, more than double that in two nearby trusts at Bristol, which had 58 each.
Mr Hancock was asked in April if the festival should have taken place.
He said: “We followed the scientific advice. Broadly, I think we took the right measures at the right time.” A source close to Mr Hancock said: “These lurid
suggestions are nothing more than a tin hat conspiracy theory.
“Of course Matt is a fan of horse racing – he is the MP for Newmarket.”
But Lib Dem MP Layla Moran told the Mirror yesterday: “Images of the packed Cheltenham Festival in March send shivers down our spines. “Reports now suggest that had lockdown happened sooner, lives could have been saved. The Health Secretary has serious questions to answer. “We need full transparency and assurance that, in March, he and the Government were making decisions based only on the science.” Asked about his firm’s donations to Mr Hancock and his local Conservatives, Mr Gredley said: “I support the Tories and I support the community. It goes to his constituency office.”
Other donors to Mr Hancock’s local constituency include trainer John Gosden who has given £25,000, and his wife Rachel Hood, who gave £10,000.
Former British Horseracing Authority chairman Steve Harman gave £8,000 last May to support Mr Hancock’s failed bid to become Tory leader, while trainer Oliver Pawle donated £5,000.
Stud owner Peter Stanley, who sits on the board of the Jockey Club board, gave £5,000 to support the costs of Mr Hancock’s constituency office.
Horse trainer Kirsten Rausing gave £15,750 to the Tories in Mr Hancock’s constituency from 2011 to 2017.
There is no suggestion Mr Hancock’s donors pressured him to allow the festival to go ahead. The racecourse decided to hold the event and was advised by the Director of Public Health at Gloucestershire council on extra hygiene measures.