Labour has today accused the Government of another cover-up after
Cabinet Office Minister refused to publish meeting
minutes and correspondence relating to £3.5 billion of Covid
contracts that were awarded without tender to companies with
links to the Conservative Party.
At Cabinet Office Questions this morning, Labour’s Deputy Leader
and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster demanded that the
Government publish “all the emails, WhatsApps, messages,
correspondence and meeting minutes between Government Ministers,
special advisers, MPs and the companies”.
Pressed on publication of the minutes of a meeting between former
MP , Randox and the then health
minister , which the Government had
admitted they were “unable to locate” last week.
Barclay refused to answer whether the minutes has been found
since, or when other documents would be released. He said that
the National Audit Office “had power to access any
document”.
Warning that the Randox lobbying scandal could be the “tip of the
Conservative corruption iceberg”, Labour is demanding an
independent investigation into these contracts to get to the
bottom of how they were awarded, after the Government admitted it
could not locate the minutes to a meeting between Randox, and a Health Minister.
Labour is demanding that a new independent investigation
includes:
- Which Conservative Ministers were involved in decisions that
saw contracts awarded to Conservative donors and companies linked
to the Conservative Party;
- What role lobbying by Conservative MPs paid as consultants
and advisers played in the awarding of contracts;
- What the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and
other senior Ministers knew about these contracts being awarded
to Conservative donors and cronies;
- The operation of the VIP lane for PPE contracts, including
publication of communications from Conservative MPs referring
companies to the VIP lane;
- How much of the taxpayers’ money that went to Conservative
Party donors and friends of the Conservative Party was wasted on
useless and unsafe PPE;
- The details of all emails, WhatsApps, messages,
correspondence and meetings involving these contracts after it
emerged deleted WhatsApp messages
related to the awarding of contracts and the Government did not
have minutes of a meeting between Randox, Paterson and Bethell.
, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said:
“The Randox corruption scandal could be the tip of the
Conservative corruption iceberg. Billions of pounds of taxpayers’
money has been handed to Conservative donors and companies with
links to Conservative Ministers and we need to know what role
paid lobbying, secret meeting and cosy WhatsApp chats played in
these contracts.
“Ministers are launching another cover-up so we need a full
independent investigation to get to the bottom of this racket.
“Public money must be treated with respect, not handed out in
backhand deals that line the pockets of Conservative donors.
“While the corrupt Conservatives really do think there’s one rule
for them and another rule for the rest of us Labour will clean up
our politics. Labour will ban MPs from taking second jobs as
consultants and advisers when they should be serving their
constituents, ban Ministers from taking on lobbying gigs after
they leave office for at least five years and establish an Office
for Value for Money, to make sure that every pound of taxpayers’
money is spent wisely.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
- Labour analysis showed that £3.5 billion of government
contracts have been awarded to companies with links to the
Conservative Party.
https://labour.org.uk/press/crony-covid-contracts-hit-3-5bn-of-taxpayers-money/
- This came after the National Audit Office reported that the
Government had established a ‘high priority’ or VIP lane in
November 2020, with the Government confirming last week that 50
firms got contracts through this VIP fast-track lane
https://www.nao.org.uk/press-release/investigation-into-government-procurement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59334952
- Overall, the companies and individuals who were awarded these
contracts have given over £9.2m to the Conservative Party.
- £2.8 billion of unusable PPE is costing £1 million a day to
store
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/piles-unused-ppe-costing-1million-25391211
- £252 million on useless face masks from Ayanda Capital
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53672841
- Randox were awarded a £347 million contract after failing to
deliver a previous contract
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/04/tory-linked-firm-involved-in-testing-failure-awarded-new-347m-covid-contract
