Hugh Grant accuses government of ‘exploiting pandemic to enrich their friends and donors’

Actor has been a vocal critic of Conservatives for many years

Hugh Grant has accused the government of using the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to “enrich” its friends and donors.

The actor, who frequently uses Twitter to air his criticisms of Boris Johnson’s government, shared a report about an IT company that was allegedly paid millions across multiple coronavirus contracts and has “extensive links to the Conservatives”.

A tweet in the thread explains: “Softcat Plc are an IT Infrastructure / Services Company awarded £16.2m since Feb 2020 over 11 different Covid-related agreements. These range from work in the health service to supporting the Student Loans Company & DWP.”

Grant retweeted the thread, commenting: “Always heartwarming to watch this government exploit a pandemic to enrich their friends and donors.”

When approached by The Independent for comment, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “Non-Executive directors declare any relevant interest upon appointment, which are transparently published annually, and they follow the Code of Conduct for board members of public bodies. Their independent advice brings an external perspective to scrutinise the business of government and ensure value for taxpayers’ money.”

The Four Weddings and a Funeral star has condemned the government for its handling of the coronavirus crisis on numerous occasions.

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Last May, after retweeting a string of posts criticising Johnson and the Tories, he reshared a clip taken from ITV daytime programme This Morning, which saw presenter Phillip Schofield ask health secretary Matt Hancock whether he was really saying that people could see their two parents separately 10 minutes apart, but not together under new lockdown guidance.

“But don’t you see that that’s utterly bonkers,” the presenter said, with Grant in agreement as he seemingly replied to Schofield’s comment. “It is. They are. We’re f***ed,” he wrote.

Before Covid-19 even began to spread in the UK, Grant said the result of the December general election was a “catastrophe” and that the UK was “finished”. Grant had campaigned for Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Grant will next appear in the Guy Ritchie thriller Five Eyes, about an agent on a mission to track down and stop the sale of a deadly weapons technology that threatens to disrupt the world order.