Hancock pulls back from pal in £30m PPE contract row
MATT HANCOCK has defended a decision to award £30million Covid contracts to a pub landlord pal now being investigated by a medical watchdog.
The health secretary dismissed claims of cronyism when questioned about an inquiry into Alex Bourne saying it was ‘ridiculous’ to stop friends of ministers applying for contracts.
The ex-boss of The Cock Inn, in Mr Hancock’s West Norfolk constituency, won deals to supply test vials to the NHS after exchanging WhatsApp messages with the secretary of state.
And as details emerged of a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency probe into Mr Bourne’s firm – which produced no medical equipment prior to the pandemic – a picture of the pub previously displayed on the wall of Mr Hancock’s study had been removed.
Asked about deals won by Mr Bourne, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he had nothing to do with awarding the contract. ‘This has been looked into in great detail. It’s only because of the transparency that I support we can ask questions about contracts,’ he added.
Mr Hancock was later accused of ‘gaslighting’ by saying health workers never ran out of PPE equipment during the first wave of Covid cases. The High Court
last week ruled he had acted unlawfully by failing to disclose details of PPE deals.
One contract worth £160million was awarded to a hedge fund which supplied ‘unusable’ face masks, the court heard.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said: ‘It’s insulting to front-line staff who didn’t have the right masks or were given inferior gowns. They were put at unnecessary risk. The fact is it was a smash-and-grab for Tory donors and friends’. Mr Hancock fired back: ‘It’s easy to ask questions. What is hard is to deliver PPE in the teeth of a pandemic... and that is what my team did.’