Seven Tory politicians helped firms access VIP lane for PPE contracts, leak reveals

Michael Gove pushed forward firm co-owned by Conservative donor

Cabinet minister Michael Gove (PA)

Seven Conservative MPs and peers referred companies through a “VIP lane” for contracts handed out during the Covid crisis, a leaked document has revealed.

Boris Johnson’s government has faced accusations of cronyism after it emerged that some firms were given access to a High Priority Lane which fast-tracked their bids for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts.

The government has refused to reveal details of the priority access scheme – but four Tory MPs and three peers have now been named as “referrers” in a list of 47 firms that won PPE contracts through the VIP lane.

The list of lucrative PPE deals published by Politico website shows that former health secretary Matt Hancock helped in the process of securing work for four separate firms.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt and Esther McVey are the other MPs who reportedly recommended firms, while Tory peers Lord Feldman, Lord Agnew, Lord Deighton are also named as “referrers”.

Mr Gove is named on the leaked list as the source of referral for Meller Designs – the firm co-owned by Conservative donor David Meller – to the VIP lane. The company went on to land more than £160m in PPE deals.

Labour pointed to the fact that Mr Mellor has made personal donations to Mr Gove, formerly in charge of the Cabinet Office, the department responsible for procurement guidelines.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “It shows just how engulfed in corruption this government is that the minister in charge of procurement and ensuring that contracts are awarded to the best bidder and represent value for money for the taxpayer was helping his own donor to get VIP fast-track access to contracts.”

The leaked list also shows that Lord Feldman – David Cameron’s former tennis partner – pushed forward three firms who went on to win lucrative government contracts worth tens of millions of pounds.

There is no suggestion that the referrers made any decisions on whether or not to hand a PPE contract to a particular firm. But the government has refused to publish the names of those involved in the fast-track scheme.

The government has argued that a VIP lane was a “perfectly reasonable and rational” solution to the large number of offers to supply equipment at the beginning of the pandemic.

Last month, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told the health department to finally disclose the names of the companies fast-tracked for PPE during the pandemic.

“There was no good reason, but there were obvious bad reasons, for government to keep the public in the dark about these links,” said Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project campaign group.

He added: “We now need some transparency about the equivalent VIP lane for Test and Trace contracts, on which £37bn of public money was spent.”

Deals totalling £12.5bn for masks, gloves and gowns and other equipment have come under intense scrutiny after the National Audit Office revealed that companies placed on a “VIP list” were 10 times more likely to win contracts in the early months of the pandemic.

A government spokesperson told The Independent: “At the height of the pandemic there was a desperate need for PPE to protect health and social care staff and the government rightly took swift and decisive action to secure it. Ministers were not involved in awarding contracts.”

Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “That high priority list meant that procurement officials could assess offers more quickly from sources such as large companies with established contacts and those more capable of supplying the protective equipment for NHS workers at speed.”

The No 10 spokesperson added: “But it went through the same level of due diligence as other routes did.”

Ms McVey told The Independent the firm she referred on to government officials was based in her constituency. “We referred them to the dedicated email address set up by the Cabinet Office,” she said.

The Independent has contacted the other Conservative MPs and peers named as “referrers” for comment.