David Cameron is at the centre of a fresh lobbying row after it emerged his employer clinched a £123m genetic-sequencing contract after the former PM contacted Matt Hancock.
Mr Cameron is a paid adviser for Illumina, a US biotech company that provides gene-sequencing services that can be used to screen DNA for genetic illnesses.
In April 2019 he wrote to Mr Hancock, the then health secretary, about a genomics conference, due to take place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hampshire that September, saying: “I understand Jay [Flatley, then executive chairman of Illumina] has sent this direct to your office, but I wanted to i) ensure that you had seen it personally; and ii) strongly endorse their invitation to this significant conference.”
Mr Hancock agreed to go after receiving his former boss’ letter - written from Mr Cameron’s taxpayer-funded post-prime ministerial office, according to a report in the Times.
Just one week after the conference, the company was given a multimillion-pound contract for genetic sequencing with Genomics England, a company wholly owned by the Department of Health and Social Care, without competition.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahwai also met Mr Cameron in March to discuss gene-sequencing. Illumina was given further government contracts, with Public Health England, worth up to £870,000. The government denied contracts were discussed at the meeting.
The former Tory premier provoked anger earlier this year when he became embroiled in the Greensill Capital lobbying scandal.
It emerged that Mr Cameron flooded ministers' devices with calls, texts and emails lobbying for Covid support for the since-failed finance firm - which he had shares in.
He is reported to have earned £7m as part of his advisory role with Greensill.
Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, said: “There is rampant cronyism, sleaze and dodgy lobbying that is polluting our democracy under Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. They hand public money to their mates without a second thought.
“With NHS staff suggesting that it hasn’t been possible to make full use of the capacity the contract provided, the Government must answer questions about why it awarded such a huge sum of money without competition in the first place.”
The former PM denies lobbying for any contract for Illumina and has said his role was to promote genomics sequencing.
“David Cameron’s work for Illumina has never involved any discussion of commercial contracts,” his spokesman said.
He added the role was cleared by the sleaze watchdog ACOBA, and said: “As has been made clear on numerous occasions, David Cameron has never lobbied the Government on behalf of Illumina or been involved in any contract or commercial discussions.”
The government said the deal was a “follow on contract” from a previous agreement struck in 2014, and was awarded after a market review concluded Illumina was “the only company with the technical capability to deliver the work”
A spokesman said: “This contract, signed to help save lives through better diagnosis, was awarded in the correct way, through the proper process and any suggestion of undue ministerial involvement in the decision making is completely wrong.
“Extensive due diligence was carried out and as set out in the transparency notice the contact was directly awarded because Illumina was the only company considered to have the technical capability to deliver this crucial work.”
