Boris Johnson’s government has been accused of “corruption” over its handling of PPE contracts at the height of the covid pandemic, by a leading Labour MP.
Former Labour Minister Chris Bryant told the Commons there had been a “cover-up” as the government was urged to publish outstanding Covid contracts by the end of the week.
During an urgent Commons question on the handling of covid contracts Bryant said he would take “no nonsense” from Health Minister Edward Argar who sought to explain the situation.
Bryant told the Commons: “The truth of the matter is that the Government didn’t even get PPE out fast enough to people who really needed it, especially in our care homes, which is why so many people died and we have the highest excess death rate of any country in the world."
He added: “So I’m not taking any of this nonsense about they had to focus on that which meant that they couldn’t deal with transparency. The truth is what they set up was a VIP track for some people to be able to get massive contracts, and some people enriched themselves phenomenally during this pandemic.
“And many of them – surprise, surprise – happen to be Conservative party donors.
“It looks, I have to say, like corruption, and the only way that the Government can wipe that slate clean is if it comes clean with all the contracts, because otherwise it just looks like a cover-up.”
Argar responded: “I’ll take his first comment, I think, as a compliment from a colleague I know well. But I have to say, having said that, I do not recognise his characterisation of what happened.”
The Good Law Project took the UK Government to court and in February 19 and the High Court ruled that the Government had acted unlawfully by not publishing contracts in time. Labour’s Rachel Reeves called on the Minister “to publish all 100 outstanding contracts by the end of this week”.
The SNP’s Stewart Hosie said: “Is the minister not concerned that this failure in transparency, potential conflicts of interest that the Prime Minister doesn’t even appear to know what’s going on, simply feeds a perception of a Government doing profitable deals with friends and cronies rather than delivering meaningful transparency which will actually drive value for money for the taxpayer?”
Labour chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee Meg Hillier accused Cabinet minister Michael Gove of being “missing in action” for sending a junior Minister to answer questions in the Commons.
She said: “That doesn’t give an excuse for not publishing these contracts in time with over £10 billion done without tender action between the beginning of the pandemic and July, the urgency to see that paperwork is more important not less.”
