Government must be held to account

THE credibility of both Parliament and the Government are at stake.

The Government is using scare tactics to prevent a judicial review of their decisions to award huge contracts without due process which have already been criticised by the National Audit Office.

The Government are claiming that they acted lawfully in channelling hundreds of millions or even billions to VIP associates but, remarkably, that it is not in the public interest to reveal the details of those contracts. Millions, if not billions, of taxpayers’ money is involved.

To discourage the judicial review, the Government is going to extreme lengths to jack up the cost by employing very expensive international commercial lawyers.

They are seeking to extend the judicial review request to increase the likely overall cost to £1 million, in order to deter people from pressing ahead with the judicial review process.

How can investigating the award of millions, even billions of pounds, criticised by the National Audit Office, not be in the public interest?

How can the Government, in the depth of the pandemic, with families going hungry, justify spending a million pounds on international lawyers?

The Government wants to use taxpayers’ money to cover up their own dodgy deals. A pandemic in which 100,000 British people have died should not be used as a very lucrative business opportunity for Conservative party cronies!

For the sake of the integrity of public life, MPs of all parties must hold the government to account!

The credibility of both Parliament and the Government are at stake, as is the reputation of the Conservative Party!

Andrew Milroy Trowbridge