Hancock should go as he acted unlawfully

YESTERDAY (as I write) Matt Hancock was found to have acted unlawfully. A Government minister acted unlawfully. I am old enough to remember when such a decision would have caused outrage and brought shame upon a government. When such a decision would have ended the career of the politician.

Now, we apparently live in a time when such behaviour is so ordinary, so run of the mill, that it was barely reported on in the evening news.

During the early stages of the pandemic, when we discovered large quantities of our PPE had been left to go out of date, Matt Hancock authorised huge amounts of spending, often with companies who had no prior experience in supplying PPE.

Many of these companies were owned by people with links to the government and in some cases they failed to supply usable products.

These contracts were handed out without following due process and due process was then not followed in disclosing the contracts.

It was almost like they had something to hide, and we know that in some cases they paid way too much for the goods.

In one instance the Government paid a Mr Andersson £21 million to be a go-between in the supply of surgical gloves and gowns.

Mr Andersson had no experience in medical buying. We also know that experienced suppliers of PPE were regularly overlooked while friends of ministers lined their pockets profiteering from the pandemic.

This is not run of the mill, this is outrageous and Matt Hancock should go.

Sarah Pineger Cheltenham