Establishment networking, sleaze and corruption. A handy compendium.
- Thread starter teqniq
- Start date
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Have we had this by the way? I opened a tab and am not sure where the link came from - it may even be from this thread 
www.transparency.org.uk
How we uncovered the UK businesses entangled in major corruption and money laundering cases
From suspicious spending splurges to London kleptocracy bus tours, the UK’s dirty money problem has caught the public eye in recent years. Much of this attention has focussed on the palatial properties and outrageous opulence enjoyed by those who have abused the power entrusted in them by their...
www.transparency.org.uk
teqniq
DisMembered
The BBC have essentially packacked all the info that has been lying around for quite some time in one long article. Dido Harding in an almost footnote at the end gets a bit of the ''it's not really her fault' treatment.
Coronavirus: Inside NHS Test and Trace - how the 'world beater' went wrong
BBC News spoke to key government figures, scientists and health officials involved from the start.
www.bbc.com
Last edited:
teqniq
DisMembered
Yes indeed and like the last BBC article I linked to it completly fails to mention the connections between the private contractors and people in government.
GarveyLives
Well-Known Member
(Source: Daily Mail online)
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Boris Johnson ‘acted illegally’ over jobs for top anti-Covid staff
Legal action targets appointments of Dido Harding, Kate Bingham and Mike Coupe
Goodoh
teqniq
DisMembered
Matt Hancock gave key Covid role to lobbyist pal
Matt Hancock has failed to declare that he appointed his closest friend from university, who is the director of a lobbying firm, as an adviser — and later gave
www.thetimes.co.uk
Matt Hancock has failed to declare that he appointed his closest friend from university, who is the director of a lobbying firm, as an adviser — and later gave her a £15,000-a-year role on the board of his department.
Gina Coladangelo, 42, is a director and major shareholder at Luther Pendragon, a lobbying firm based in central London that offers clients a “deep understanding of the mechanics of government”. She is also communications director at Oliver Bonas, a fashion and lifestyle store founded by her husband.
Hancock, the health secretary, first met Coladangelo, a public relations consultant, while involved with radio at Oxford University and the pair remain close friends.
In March, he secretly appointed her as an unpaid adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a six-month contract.
She has since accompanied Hancock, 42, to confidential meetings with civil servants and visited No 10 Downing Street.
One source said: “Before Matt does anything big, he’ll speak to Gina. She knows everything.” Another added: “She has access to lots of confidential information.”
In September, Hancock appointed Coladangelo as a non-executive director at DHSC, meaning that she is a member of the board that scrutinises the department. There is no public record of the appointment, which will see her earn at least £15,000 of taxpayers’ money and could rise by a further £5,000.
March 23: Matt Hancock in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster, with Gina Colandangelo, days before the national lockdown
Since April, Coladangelo has had a parliamentary pass, giving her unregulated access to the Palace of Westminster. It bears her husband’s surname, which she does not use professionally, and is sponsored by Lord Bethell, the hereditary peer, health minister and former lobbyist.
However, Coladangelo is understood to play no role in Bethell’s team.
Yesterday, the DHSC could not explain why he had sponsored her pass and had to ask this newspaper for help in finding the documents showing that he had done so.
The disclosures come as the government faces allegations of “chumocracy” and a lack of transparency in appointing friends from the private sector to key roles.
Lord Evans, the ex-MI5 boss, has warned that a “perception is taking root” that “some in our political leadership, are choosing to disregard the norms of ethics and propriety that have explicitly governed public life for the last 25 years”.
Last week, The Sunday Times also revealed that George Pascoe-Watson, chairman of Portland Communications, another lobbying firm, had advised a minister in Hancock’s department for most of the pandemic.
Shortly after leaving his role, he passed sensitive information about lockdown policy to paying clients. They include McDonald’s, which says that it has ceased all work with the firm and placed their relationship under review. Pascoe-Watson has insisted he did not gain the information through his role.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, responded by calling for an inquiry into how lobbyists are able to serve as government advisers, saying: “The public need answers now.”
May 15: The pair arriving at No 10 for the daily press conference
She redoubled those calls last night as the government declined to dispute any aspect of the latest “chumocracy” story.
Instead, a government source said that Coladangelo — who studied economics at Oxford and is not known to have a health background — worked to “support DHSC in connection with its response to the current coronavirus global health emergency”.
Hancock and Coladangelo were pictured together as recently as last Monday. However, the source said that she had “previously” worked for Hancock, implying that her advisory role had come to an end. They added that she had signed a “volunteer’s agreement”, meaning that she is bound by the Official Secrets Act.
Left, June 7: Heading for The Andrew Marr Show at the BBC. Right, July 5: Arriving at BBC HQ again
The DHSC did not respond to questions about a number of possible conflicts of interest arising from her role.
Luther Pendragon, the lobbying firm in which she is a director, boasts clients who have secured lucrative contracts during the pandemic, including British Airways (£70m) and Accenture, which received £2.5m to help build the NHS Covid-19 app.
Trade publications have described Oliver Bonas, for whom she works as communications and marketing director, as something of a “poster boy” for the government of late.
In June, for example, a blog was published on the government website entitled: “Oliver Bonas: Fashion and homeware store reopens safely.”
Then there is Coladangelo’s appointment as a non-executive director of DHSC, which appears in just one place publicly: her LinkedIn page. The role makes her responsible for “overseeing and monitoring performance” — in effect, scrutinising matters of concern to Hancock, with whom she attends Christmas drinks, birthday parties and family dinners.
Left, September 20: Using a socially distanced greeting at the BBC. Right, September 24: Returning to parliament on the day Rishi Sunak presented his winter economy plan
Coladangelo’s role does not break any rules — because there are none. As Peter Riddell, the commissioner for public appointments, noted recently, such appointments are “not regulated at all” and increasingly take place “without competition and without any form of regulatory oversight”.
Ministers, in other words, are free to create a process or, as Hancock has apparently done, reward their closest friends with roles.
MPs also do not have to declare such advisers on the register of MPs’ staff and secretaries, which is designed to ensure transparency. On Hancock’s register, the West Suffolk MP lists three people. Coladangelo is not one of them.
Alex Thomas, who was right-hand man to Jeremy Heywood, the former cabinet secretary, and is a programme director at the Institute for Government, said: “It’s reasonable for ministers to take advice from a range of sources, but advisers should be transparent, accountable and appointed on merit.”
The former senior civil servant added: “Non-executive directors are appointed to bring in commercial and other expertise to departments, and to help ministers and civil servants deliver high priority projects. That’s where they add most value.”
During his time as a student journalist at Oxford, Hancock overslept on the day he was supposed to cover a rugby match at Twickenham. Instead of making it to the stadium, he got off the train early, found a nearby pub and watched the match on television, before writing the match report as planned.
In an interview on the BBC in April, in which she did not disclose her role, Coladangelo, a colleague of his at Oxygen FM, recalled: “He told a white lie, pretended he was at Twickenham watching the rugby, when in fact he was in a pub in Reading.” She added: “Successfully. Nobody ever found out.”
More than two decades later, Hancock is one of the most powerful officials in government and a member of the “quad” of cabinet ministers who determine Covid-19 policy. Some even credit him with persuading the PM to return to a second lockdown.
Coladangelo is now a successful businesswoman. And yet she finds herself facing questions, again, over what Hancock has and has not disclosed.
Gina Coladangelo, 42, is a director and major shareholder at Luther Pendragon, a lobbying firm based in central London that offers clients a “deep understanding of the mechanics of government”. She is also communications director at Oliver Bonas, a fashion and lifestyle store founded by her husband.
Hancock, the health secretary, first met Coladangelo, a public relations consultant, while involved with radio at Oxford University and the pair remain close friends.
In March, he secretly appointed her as an unpaid adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a six-month contract.
She has since accompanied Hancock, 42, to confidential meetings with civil servants and visited No 10 Downing Street.
One source said: “Before Matt does anything big, he’ll speak to Gina. She knows everything.” Another added: “She has access to lots of confidential information.”
In September, Hancock appointed Coladangelo as a non-executive director at DHSC, meaning that she is a member of the board that scrutinises the department. There is no public record of the appointment, which will see her earn at least £15,000 of taxpayers’ money and could rise by a further £5,000.
March 23: Matt Hancock in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster, with Gina Colandangelo, days before the national lockdown
Since April, Coladangelo has had a parliamentary pass, giving her unregulated access to the Palace of Westminster. It bears her husband’s surname, which she does not use professionally, and is sponsored by Lord Bethell, the hereditary peer, health minister and former lobbyist.
However, Coladangelo is understood to play no role in Bethell’s team.
Yesterday, the DHSC could not explain why he had sponsored her pass and had to ask this newspaper for help in finding the documents showing that he had done so.
The disclosures come as the government faces allegations of “chumocracy” and a lack of transparency in appointing friends from the private sector to key roles.
Lord Evans, the ex-MI5 boss, has warned that a “perception is taking root” that “some in our political leadership, are choosing to disregard the norms of ethics and propriety that have explicitly governed public life for the last 25 years”.
Last week, The Sunday Times also revealed that George Pascoe-Watson, chairman of Portland Communications, another lobbying firm, had advised a minister in Hancock’s department for most of the pandemic.
Shortly after leaving his role, he passed sensitive information about lockdown policy to paying clients. They include McDonald’s, which says that it has ceased all work with the firm and placed their relationship under review. Pascoe-Watson has insisted he did not gain the information through his role.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, responded by calling for an inquiry into how lobbyists are able to serve as government advisers, saying: “The public need answers now.”
May 15: The pair arriving at No 10 for the daily press conference
She redoubled those calls last night as the government declined to dispute any aspect of the latest “chumocracy” story.
Instead, a government source said that Coladangelo — who studied economics at Oxford and is not known to have a health background — worked to “support DHSC in connection with its response to the current coronavirus global health emergency”.
Hancock and Coladangelo were pictured together as recently as last Monday. However, the source said that she had “previously” worked for Hancock, implying that her advisory role had come to an end. They added that she had signed a “volunteer’s agreement”, meaning that she is bound by the Official Secrets Act.
Left, June 7: Heading for The Andrew Marr Show at the BBC. Right, July 5: Arriving at BBC HQ again
The DHSC did not respond to questions about a number of possible conflicts of interest arising from her role.
Luther Pendragon, the lobbying firm in which she is a director, boasts clients who have secured lucrative contracts during the pandemic, including British Airways (£70m) and Accenture, which received £2.5m to help build the NHS Covid-19 app.
Trade publications have described Oliver Bonas, for whom she works as communications and marketing director, as something of a “poster boy” for the government of late.
In June, for example, a blog was published on the government website entitled: “Oliver Bonas: Fashion and homeware store reopens safely.”
Then there is Coladangelo’s appointment as a non-executive director of DHSC, which appears in just one place publicly: her LinkedIn page. The role makes her responsible for “overseeing and monitoring performance” — in effect, scrutinising matters of concern to Hancock, with whom she attends Christmas drinks, birthday parties and family dinners.
Left, September 20: Using a socially distanced greeting at the BBC. Right, September 24: Returning to parliament on the day Rishi Sunak presented his winter economy plan
Coladangelo’s role does not break any rules — because there are none. As Peter Riddell, the commissioner for public appointments, noted recently, such appointments are “not regulated at all” and increasingly take place “without competition and without any form of regulatory oversight”.
Ministers, in other words, are free to create a process or, as Hancock has apparently done, reward their closest friends with roles.
MPs also do not have to declare such advisers on the register of MPs’ staff and secretaries, which is designed to ensure transparency. On Hancock’s register, the West Suffolk MP lists three people. Coladangelo is not one of them.
Alex Thomas, who was right-hand man to Jeremy Heywood, the former cabinet secretary, and is a programme director at the Institute for Government, said: “It’s reasonable for ministers to take advice from a range of sources, but advisers should be transparent, accountable and appointed on merit.”
The former senior civil servant added: “Non-executive directors are appointed to bring in commercial and other expertise to departments, and to help ministers and civil servants deliver high priority projects. That’s where they add most value.”
During his time as a student journalist at Oxford, Hancock overslept on the day he was supposed to cover a rugby match at Twickenham. Instead of making it to the stadium, he got off the train early, found a nearby pub and watched the match on television, before writing the match report as planned.
In an interview on the BBC in April, in which she did not disclose her role, Coladangelo, a colleague of his at Oxygen FM, recalled: “He told a white lie, pretended he was at Twickenham watching the rugby, when in fact he was in a pub in Reading.” She added: “Successfully. Nobody ever found out.”
More than two decades later, Hancock is one of the most powerful officials in government and a member of the “quad” of cabinet ministers who determine Covid-19 policy. Some even credit him with persuading the PM to return to a second lockdown.
Coladangelo is now a successful businesswoman. And yet she finds herself facing questions, again, over what Hancock has and has not disclosed.
teqniq
DisMembered
Good news on our procurement judicial reviews - Good Law Project
To bring judicial review proceedings you have to establish you have an arguable case. Courts have, in recent times, interpreted this as imposing a relatively high bar for judicial review proceedings; think of it as being shortlisted for a job. And if they think you cross that bar they give you...
goodlawproject.org
teqniq
DisMembered
Exclusive: A Scottish Property Developer Who Said He Knew 'Nothing At All' About PPE Was Handed £9.6m To Supply Surgical Gowns To The NHS
A Scottish property firm whose director admitted he knew “nothing at all” about PPE before the pandemic, and who says he managed a deal with Chines...
www.politicshome.com
and this from Sunday:
Tory Steve Dechan’s £276m in PPE contracts lands him a place in the country
A former Conservative councillor, who was awarded £276m in government contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE), has traded his modest home for a £1.5m,
www.thetimes.co.uk
A former Conservative councillor, who was awarded £276m in government contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE), has traded his modest home for a £1.5m, 17th-century Cotswolds mansion with 100 acres of land.
Steve Dechan is the owner of Platform-14, a Gloucestershire firm that specialises in medical devices for people with chronic pain. It recorded a loss of almost £500,000 last year.
In April, Dechan, 52, was awarded a £120m contract to supply masks. At the time it was the third largest order that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had placed for protective gear. He later received a further £156m to provide gowns and masks.
Neither contract went through a competitive tender process. Instead, Dechan established direct contact with the DHSC at the start of the first wave, offering the equipment via a British contact in Hong Kong, who, in turn, used a company in southern China.
In June, Dechan spent £1.5m on a grade II listed home in Painswick Valley, an area of outstanding natural beauty known as the “Queen of the Cotswolds”.
According to an estate agent’s brochure, Dell Farm House, a former dairy built in 1611, includes five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a rear wing that “could easily be used as a staff flat if needed”.
Speaking outside the house last week, Dechan confirmed he and his wife Kate, 42, who helps to run the company, had bought it. They have also retained their original home in Stroud, a 20-minute drive away, which is valued at about £350,000, but plan to sell it.
Dechan, who was raised in the Scottish Borders, said that since receiving the contracts he had taken a salary of “round about £400,000”, adding: “My wife has taken about £150,000.”
He said some of the money was “back pay” after five years when Platform-14 had struggled financially. During that period he had paid himself about £25,000 a year, below the average annual full-time salary.
Dechan said he was now able to pay himself a substantial salary because of the PPE contracts and also the growth in his company’s core business of devices that alleviate pain by sending electronic pulses through the skin. Reflecting on his recent success, he said: “We’re chuffed to bits.”
Dechan resigned as a Tory councillor in August amid scrutiny of the contracts, but defended the work he had done, saying: “We’ve absolutely done this on merit. We’ve sent things by plane, by train, by ship. We’re delivered everything we were asked to deliver.”
He also said he had used the profit to expand his business, hiring 25 people, buying a warehouse and purchasing a controlling stake in BioWave USA, a medical company based in Connecticut.
“We’re investing, building, manufacturing. We’re exporting as a British firm to the US. You don’t hear that very often. I’m sticking my neck out,” he said.
His comments come days after a damning report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that ministers had set up a VIP fast-track to buy billions of pounds of PPE from companies that had political contacts with MPs.
It also found that £10.5bn (58%) of all Covid-19 contracts were awarded without a competitive tender process and that the government had not been transparent about suppliers and services.
During last year’s general election campaign, Dechan was pictured with Sajid Javid, the Tory chancellor at the time, and Siobhan Baillie, who defeated the incumbent Labour MP to win the marginal seat. However, Dechan insisted that he did not receive his contracts through the VIP route and provided evidence to corroborate the assertion.
Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation which is challenging the government over its awarding of contracts, said: “For millions of families the pandemic has been pure misery. But for hundreds, many connected to the Conservative Party, the government’s procurement choices meant National Lottery-style winnings.
“The government needs to come clean about how this happened — and now.”
Last week Boris Johnson said he was “proud” of the way the government had secured supplies of PPE.
Steve Dechan is the owner of Platform-14, a Gloucestershire firm that specialises in medical devices for people with chronic pain. It recorded a loss of almost £500,000 last year.
In April, Dechan, 52, was awarded a £120m contract to supply masks. At the time it was the third largest order that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had placed for protective gear. He later received a further £156m to provide gowns and masks.
Neither contract went through a competitive tender process. Instead, Dechan established direct contact with the DHSC at the start of the first wave, offering the equipment via a British contact in Hong Kong, who, in turn, used a company in southern China.
In June, Dechan spent £1.5m on a grade II listed home in Painswick Valley, an area of outstanding natural beauty known as the “Queen of the Cotswolds”.
According to an estate agent’s brochure, Dell Farm House, a former dairy built in 1611, includes five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a rear wing that “could easily be used as a staff flat if needed”.
Speaking outside the house last week, Dechan confirmed he and his wife Kate, 42, who helps to run the company, had bought it. They have also retained their original home in Stroud, a 20-minute drive away, which is valued at about £350,000, but plan to sell it.
Dechan, who was raised in the Scottish Borders, said that since receiving the contracts he had taken a salary of “round about £400,000”, adding: “My wife has taken about £150,000.”
He said some of the money was “back pay” after five years when Platform-14 had struggled financially. During that period he had paid himself about £25,000 a year, below the average annual full-time salary.
Dechan said he was now able to pay himself a substantial salary because of the PPE contracts and also the growth in his company’s core business of devices that alleviate pain by sending electronic pulses through the skin. Reflecting on his recent success, he said: “We’re chuffed to bits.”
Dechan resigned as a Tory councillor in August amid scrutiny of the contracts, but defended the work he had done, saying: “We’ve absolutely done this on merit. We’ve sent things by plane, by train, by ship. We’re delivered everything we were asked to deliver.”
He also said he had used the profit to expand his business, hiring 25 people, buying a warehouse and purchasing a controlling stake in BioWave USA, a medical company based in Connecticut.
“We’re investing, building, manufacturing. We’re exporting as a British firm to the US. You don’t hear that very often. I’m sticking my neck out,” he said.
His comments come days after a damning report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that ministers had set up a VIP fast-track to buy billions of pounds of PPE from companies that had political contacts with MPs.
It also found that £10.5bn (58%) of all Covid-19 contracts were awarded without a competitive tender process and that the government had not been transparent about suppliers and services.
During last year’s general election campaign, Dechan was pictured with Sajid Javid, the Tory chancellor at the time, and Siobhan Baillie, who defeated the incumbent Labour MP to win the marginal seat. However, Dechan insisted that he did not receive his contracts through the VIP route and provided evidence to corroborate the assertion.
Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation which is challenging the government over its awarding of contracts, said: “For millions of families the pandemic has been pure misery. But for hundreds, many connected to the Conservative Party, the government’s procurement choices meant National Lottery-style winnings.
“The government needs to come clean about how this happened — and now.”
Last week Boris Johnson said he was “proud” of the way the government had secured supplies of PPE.
teqniq
DisMembered
ska invita
back on the other side
If GLPs court cases win Im curious what possible "punishment" might result from it - obviously it depends on the case, but what kind of thing, anyone know?
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Lessons learnt ?
bimble
floofy
This story is just so wtf. I don’t understand how this is even possible .
prunus
Tick tock.
Do we still have the Death penalty for treason? Slight rewording of the Plaint and name them all
We do not, since 1998. Life imprisonment only. But that’ll do.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Curses
. And no it won't.
The good news keeps coming on our procurement judicial review - Good Law Project
Following permission being granted in our PPE cases earlier this week, we’ve now heard that we’ve also been granted permission to bring our challenge against the lucrative public affairs contract given to long-time associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings at Public First. In the...
goodlawproject.org
teqniq
DisMembered
We’re in court tomorrow - Good Law Project
Last week we were pleased to be granted permission from the court to bring our challenge with EveryDoctor against the Government’s decision to award PPE contracts to Pestfix (a pest control company), Ayanda (an opaque private fund owned through a tax haven) and Clandeboye (a confectionery...
goodlawproject.org
potentially pretty damning stuff:
teqniq
DisMembered
Government in a terribly unsurprising move seeking to make it prohibitively expensive to bring legal challenges such as the Good Law Project is currently doing:
goodlawproject.org
Meanwhile in-depth piece on the PPE scandal in the NYT (paywall)
www.nytimes.com
Why you should be worried about the Government’s Green Paper on Public Procurement - Good Law Project
“The end of the (Brexit) Transition Period provides an historic opportunity to overhaul our outdated public procurement regime,“ writes Lord Agnew in the Ministerial foreword to the Government’s Green Paper: Transforming Public Procurement, published yesterday. If these words don’t strike...
goodlawproject.org
Meanwhile in-depth piece on the PPE scandal in the NYT (paywall)
Waste, Negligence and Cronyism: Inside Britain’s Pandemic Spending (Published 2020)
In the desperate scramble for protective gear and other equipment, political insiders reaped billions.
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