Cover-up claims in payment to Cummings’ pals
Tory ministers have been accused of covering up a six-figure cash payment to pals of the PM’s adviser Dominic Cummings.
The company Public First, which got £ 840,000 to run focus groups for No10, is owned by James Frayne, who set up a think tank in 2003 with Boris Johnson’s controversial a ide. He wa s once Department of Education communications director under Cummings’ ex-boss Michael Gove and it was his wi fe Rachel Wol f who wrote the Tory 2019 election manifesto.
Now shadow Cabinet Off ice minister Rachel Reeves wants to know why Public First got Covid emergency money under official cost codes which relate to Brexit. She said: “This is just one in a long line of contracts handed to Tory friends and donors.”
The Cabinet Of f ice insists it was not trying to hide anything by using “opaque” codes for the payments. Public First tests opinion on Government messaging, including focus groups for Covid-19 research. But the codes used were listed as “Gov Comms EU Exit Prog” and “EU Exit Comms”.
Reeves said it muddied the waters on what the cash was for, though the payments’ legitimacy is not in question. She added: “It’s impossible to know what the Government is spending money on or why.”
Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez said: “Gov Comms EU Exit Prog and EU Exit Comms were cost codes used to pay invoices relating to Covid- 19 research for a period of time. These were journaled over to the Covid-19 cost centre once it was created.”