It has today been revealed that Minister – when serving as the Cabinet
Office Minister in charge of the Government’s procurement policy
and ensuring that all contracts are awarded “based on value for
money… achieved through competition” – referred his personal
friend, donor and beauty company owner David Meller to the
Government’s fast-track VIP lane for friends and donors of the
Conservative Party to get PPE contracts at the height of the
pandemic.
A leaked list of 47 firms that won contracts via the VIP
fast-track system after being referred by Conservative Ministers
and MPs shows that it was Gove who referred Meller’s firm, which
was subsequently awarded contracts worth almost £50 million,
despite the fact that it is a company that supplies beauty
products to high street retailers.
Mr Meller helped to run Michael Gove’s leadership campaign in
2016 and donated £3,000 to personally. Mr Meller has also
donated £60,000 to the Conservative Party. In total he was
awarded £164 million in contracts after he took part in a call
with and , a former Conservative
Chairman and lobbyist who was brought into government to work on
contracts, and discussed PPE with Gove and Gove’s office. The
Cabinet Office has blocked the release of the messages that were
exchanged between Gove and Meller.
Mr Meller was the chairman of the President’s Club, a fundraising
group that was shut down after an investigation into allegations
of sexual harassment at its event in 2018 which was attended by
prominent Conservatives. Gove had previously appointed Meller as
a Non-Executive Director at the Department for Education and
Meller resigned from this post following the investigation.
, Labour’s Deputy Leader
and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 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.
“Michael Gove stood up in Parliament and said that all contracts
were awarded through the same process. He must have known that
wasn’t true when he said it because he had already helped his
mate gets tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
“It is time this corrupt government published the full details of
every PPE and testing contract awarded to companies with links to
the Conservative Party, Conservative Ministers and Conservative
MPs so we can get to the bottom of the lobbying, dodgy deals and
special favours that have been done using taxpayers’ money like a
get-rich-quick scheme for Conservative donors and mates.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
https://www.politico.eu/article/conservative-uk-ppe-contracts-feldman-audit/
