Newly-published emails show Boris Johnson’s government used taxpayers’ money to conduct political polling on opposition figures, such as the Labour leader, under the guidance of Dominic Cummings.
The former senior No 10 adviser led the charge in awarding Hanbury Strategy a £580,000 contract to do polling on the government’s response to the Covid pandemic. In messages released by the Good Law Project, Mr Cummings told the most senior civil servant responsible for Covid contracts to sign off on it, saying if “anybody in CABOFF [the Cabinet Office] whines tell them I ordered it from PM”.
Labour said the newly-released emails showed “all the hallmarks of a racket” and claimed taxpayers’ money had been “abused”.
Meanwhile, Dominic Raab earlier suggested that the government’s “robust approach” to small boats crossing the English Channel is not “inconsistent” with the RNLI’s attempts to rescue migrants.
