Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JOHNSON HOOVER DAMNED
Dyson texts leak probed by Cabinet Office
THE leak of private texts between Boris Johnson and Sir James Dyson will be probed by the Cabinet Office, Downing Street has confirmed.
It will look at how the Prime Minister’s messages to the billionaire businessman at the height of the pandemic became public.
The PM came under fire as it emerged he said Dyson staff would not have to pay extra tax to come to the UK to make ventilators.
The probe will not look into a leak of Mr Johnson’s private texts to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over a potential Newcastle United takeover.
It comes as pressure mounts on the Government over lobbying in the wake of the Greensill scandal.
The Bank of England released a series of messages showing bids by ex-pm David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to persuade it to extend support to cover the activities of the doomed firm.
And the Treasury’s permanent secretary Sir Tom
Scholar told the
Commons Public
Accounts Committee he was lobbied by Mr
Cameron to demand Covid help for Greensill Capital.
Labour has accused the Tories of operating “government by Whatsapp”, where only those with links to senior ministers are able to get access.
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case is said to be concerned at how easily the PM can be texted by lobbyists, MPS and business people.
No10 insiders failed to deny reports the PM rejected Mr Case’s advice to change his mobile phone number, which he has had for over a decade. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said it is “very good” that billionaire business leaders text the PM directly. He said he was contacted on his phone “all the time” by business people and constituents, despite holding one of the most sensitive portfolios in government.
It came as the High Court heard civil servants were “drowning” in requests for firms with links to politicians and senior officials to “jump the queue” for lucrative PPE contracts. Emails released in the hearing showed a pest control firm was put forward for the “VIP” list by Steve Oldfield, the Department of Health’s Chief Commercial Officer, whose father-in-law was a friend of the firm’s chairman.
Pestfix, which had no previous experience of supplying medical protective equipment, got £350million of contracts to supply PPE and other items to the NHS.
A National Audit Office report in November revealed part of the deal was to buy 25 million masks – but after 600,000 were delivered it emerged they were “not in line” with government specifications and were unusable. Pestfix said the Government changed its specifications after the first masks were delivered, and that it was working with the Government to “repurpose” the remainder of the order.
The PM has vowed to publish all personal correspondence on his phone relating to Covid contracts – but has not yet done so.
The Commons Liaison Committee has rejected a Labour call to hold an immediate probe into “cronyism”, saying existing inquiries were looking at the issue.
pippa.crerar@mirror.co.uk