A Former Tory Party chairman and tennis pal of David Cameron’s was given an unpaid job advising a Health Minister at the height of the coronavirus pandemic – despite potential conflicts of interest, it was claimed yesterday(THU).
Lord Andrew Feldman advised Lord James Bethell as the crisis tightened its grip last spring.
Lord Feldman’s lobbying firm Tulchan represented a client, Bunzl, which provided vital NHS personal protective equipment.
On March 22 last year, emails seen by the Financial Times show that Lord Feldman sent a message to Bunzl representatives, copying Andrew Wood, a Government official at the Cabinet Office, saying: “I have spoken to him [Wood] about Bunzl and the opportunity for you to supply the UK government with equipment. He will be in touch.”
A £22.6million deal for personal protective equipment was struck that April, according to the paper.
Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: “Conservative chairs past and present are mired in scandal, which just goes to show that sleaze is at the heart of this Government.
“Once again it’s clear there’s one rule for businesses with links to the Tories, and another for ordinary businesses that can’t get a hearing from Government.
“How many more of these instances of contract cronyism are lurking out there? The British public has a right to know.”
Lord Feldman told the FT: “When I agreed to help at the start of the first lockdown, it was clearly a time of significant national crisis.
“My sole motivation was to try to support the Government and the NHS in protecting medical staff and saving the lives of patients.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “Bunzl is an established provider of PPE products into the NHS and on a number of Government procurement frameworks.
“Proper due diligence is carried out for all Government contracts and we take these checks extremely seriously."
He added: “In responding to the urgent challenges of a global pandemic, we issued a call to arms to private and public sector organisations as we prepared to mobilise resources and scale up our PPE supplies.
“As a result, we have been able to deliver over 10.6 billion items of PPE to protect health and social care staff since the start of the pandemic.”
It is understood Lord Feldman played no role in the awarding of the contract.
