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Establishment networking, sleaze and corruption. A handy compendium.

www.standard.co.uk

Government agreed £280m spending on sub-standard masks in PPE spree

The government agreed to pay £280 million to two ‘VIP’ companies fast-tracked into PPE deals for face masks which did not meet NHS standards, the High Court has heard.
www.standard.co.uk www.standard.co.uk

He said the evidence due to be aired in the High Court over the next week shows that large sums of money was spent on equipment from hedge fund Ayanda and small family-run firm PestFix which failed to meet NHS safety standards.
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Not new news but good to see the courts and press airing it :)
 
www.thetimes.co.uk

Lord Udny-Lister’s property paymasters handed another £150m loan

A luxury property company that paid Boris Johnson’s closest aide throughout his time in Downing Street secured £337 million through government loan schemes with
www.thetimes.co.uk www.thetimes.co.uk

A luxury property company that paid Boris Johnson’s closest aide throughout his time in Downing Street secured £337 million through government loan schemes within a period of six months.

Lord Udny-Lister, formerly the prime minister’s chief strategic adviser, has worked for Delancey, a London-based developer owned by a Conservative Party donor, for the past five years.
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Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at 10 Downing Street. One is from up North another is from Poland, and the third is a Tory Party Donor. All three go with a Tory Party official to examine the fence.
The contractor from up north takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about £9000. £4000 for materials, £4000 for my crew, and £1000 profit for me."
The Polish contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for £7000. £3000 for materials, £3000 for my crew, and £1000 profit for me."
The Tory party donor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the Tory Party official and whispers, "£27,000."
The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The Tory Donor whispers back, "£10,000 for me, £10,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Poland to fix the fence."

"Done!" replies the Tory party official.

And that, my friends, is how this Tory government works
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Research from the Good Law Project also found One Healthcare, which won a contract worth up to £12.7m, is owned by the asset manager Octopus Investments, which donated £12,500 to the Conservative Party in 2018.
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inews.co.uk

Private hospitals provided average of seven Covid beds a day despite £2bn Government contracts

A director at Ramsay Health Care, which won a Covid contract worth £271m, previously worked at the Department of Health and Social Care on the development and the rolling out of the NHS contracts
inews.co.uk inews.co.uk
 
Good Law Project
Dear MrSki

Today in the High Court, Government's lawyers set out their defence to our legal challenge over PPE contracts handed to “VIP” companies. Government claims that companies in the VIP Lane did not materially benefit from their special treatment, and that it was simply a different route by which they could win contracts.

The evidence tells a different story.

Emails between officials reveal that companies with a political connection were given priority. A key member of the VIP Lane team wrote, ‘Speaking personally, I don’t want a middling VIP lead prioritised over a credible high priority lead any more than you do...However, if two leads are otherwise equal priority and one is VIP, some weighting to the VIP is helpful.’

In another exchange, an official set out how companies placed in the “VIP” Lane should be treated, explaining “Follow standard procedure, but take a little more time over correspondence, ‘hand-holding’ the supplier where necessary”. They followed up to say, ”Personally, I’ve found VIP cases require about three times the time of a standard case.”

What is perhaps most striking about Government's defence of the “VIP” Lane is its apparent determination to keep quiet the details of the politically-connected beneficiaries - and which Ministers or senior officials referred them. When the National Audit Office, the official spending watchdog, investigated the award of PPE contracts, Government intervened to prevent it from revealing the names of companies in the “VIP” Lane.

If the Government really has nothing to hide, why doesn’t it just come clean? Thanks to information uncovered through this litigation, we will be publishing details of a slew of other “VIPs” very shortly. Watch this space.

Thank you,

Jo Maugham
Director of Good Law Project
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Good Law Project
Dear MrSki,


Our High Court hearing is now over. Over the course of five days we’ve heard how companies with political connections jumped the queue to win lucrative PPE deals and that hundreds of millions of pounds of public money was wasted on PPE that couldn’t be used by the NHS.

What’s more, we have exposed what the leading QC acting for Good Law Project and EveryDoctor described as:

"a relentless campaign by the Defendant to obscure what really happened on significant issues."

Now, all that is left to do is wait for the judgment. We have no way of knowing when that might be handed down by the Judge - it could be weeks, or even months. We just have to sit tight.

One thing we are certain of is that, as soon as we can, we will update you on the result. Your friends and family can sign up to receive news of the judgment too. You can encourage them to sign up for updates on social media.
Bringing a case of this magnitude has only been possible thanks to the support of thousands of people across the country, including you. Regardless of the final judgment, together we have shone a light on Government practices that they would rather have kept hidden.

Thank you for helping to make it happen,

Jo Maugham
Director of Good Law Project
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Latest email from Good Law Project.

Good Law Project
Dear MrSki,

Government gets a bona fide PPE offer from a would be supplier. The company has sourced the PPE, submitted a bid and passed through the technical checks. They’re close to signing on the dotted line. But at the eleventh hour they get dropped. Instead, Government buys the same thing from someone else. Someone who came in later but with close connections to Cabinet Ministers - and at an eye watering price.

This is a story we have heard, with close variants, again and again. But Government secrecy means we haven’t been able to corroborate it - until now.

The bare facts of what Good Law Project has learned about two contracts awarded to Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited (PDL) are extraordinary. We hold documents evidencing that:
  • Priti Patel and Boris Johnson’s adviser Munira Mirza pushed the case of two middlemen for PDL with Cabinet Office;
  • the first middleman was Samir Jassal. He is a Conservative councillor who has been photographed with Boris Johnson (and May and Cameron) and who has personal links to Priti Patel and a string of other high profile Conservative politicians;
  • the second middleman was Surbjit Shergill. A company he owned went from £200 to almost £10m in value in the year of the pandemic. Documents leaked to Good Law Project suggest he billed PDL over £16m for his services;
  • the first contract, for IIR face masks, was signed only six days after a direct intervention from Priti Patel – and for a price materially above the average price;
  • the second contract, for ‘Meixin 2016V’ FFP3 face masks, was concluded on 7 July - and only after officials from the political hub of PPE procurement, the Cabinet Office, overruled objections from DHSC that it was overpriced by £50m;
  • another bidder had passed technical assurance – and had even been sent a contract – to supply Meixin 2016Vs at the same time and in meaningfully the same quantity. On 2 July they were told Government had already bought enough of that type of mask. Five days later Government spent over £100m buying Meixin 2016Vs from PDL.
Good Law Project has published a long read on how a number of politicians and advisors intervened in PDL’s bid for a lucrative contract. We link to all the key documents. And there is more to come. All involved say they did nothing wrong - and their responses can be found in the long read. We think the evidence we have published speaks for itself.

This story will be published more widely tomorrow but we wanted to make sure those on our mailing list, including you, received it first. If you want to share this breaking story with your friends and family, you can do so below:
We are taking legal action over the award of contracts to PDL. If you are in a position to do so, you can donate here.

Thank you,

Jo Maugham
Director of Good Law Project
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goodlawproject.org

Patel, Mirza and the Middlemen - Good Law Project

Government’s position has consistently been that Ministers had no role in PPE procurement decisions. That, as we show below, is just not true. Good Law Project has evidence that Ministers – Cabinet Ministers – and a close adviser to the Prime Minister actively helped favoured bidders win PPE...
goodlawproject.org goodlawproject.org

20210528_205152.jpg
 
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