Tories who placed firms in fast lane for PPE millions
SENIOR Tories helped contacts and donors win massive PPE deals at the start of the Covid pandemic, a leaked list shows.
It contains the names of 11 ministers, MPs, peers and advisers who put firms into a ‘VIP lane’ to secure £1.6billion of contracts.
Michael Gove, whose Cabinet Office department was in charge of sourcing medical masks and gowns, referred a company run by a businessman who donated to his leadership campaign. It landed £50million in NHS contracts.
Former Conservative chairman Lord Feldman, disgraced health secretary Matt Hancock and No 10 aide Dominic
‘VIP access to contracts’
Cummings also put suppliers on the fast track to lucrative Covid deals.
The revelations will deepen the sleaze scandal following Boris Johnson’s disastrous attempt to protect a former minister who broke lobbying rules – and the furore over another Tory earning £5.5million as a lawyer while sitting as an MP.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: ‘It shows just how engulfed in corruption this Government is that the minister in charge of procurement and ensuring that contracts are awarded to the best bidder and represent value for money for the taxpayer was helping his own donor to get VIP fast-track access to contracts.’
The public spending watchdog has already found that companies were far more likely to win lucrative contracts to supply protective equipment to the NHS if they were placed in the ‘high-priority lane’ set up by a cross-government PPE team to assess leads provided by politicians. A list published by campaigners at the Good Law Project yesterday has shown for the first time just how many firms benefited after their offers were put forward by senior Conservatives.
Lingerie tycoon Baroness Mone passed on details of a company called PPE Medpro that won deals worth £200million. One of its directors was secretary of a company that manages the baroness’s brand.
Her lawyers have insisted she had no role in awarding contracts. She is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Mr Cummings said linking him to an £800,000 contract was an ‘admin error’, adding: ‘I’ve not been involved with this company’.
A Downing Street spokesman said referrals to the high priority list were subject to the same rigorous checks and assurance processes that all other procurement routes went through.’ Of Mr Gove referring a bid from a Tory donor, they said the deal had come under the same level of ‘due diligence’.
A spokesman for Mr Gove said last night: ‘He played no role in the decision to award any PPE contract, and all ministerial interests were properly declared.’