LONDON — A former chair of the Conservative party helped secure lucrative protective equipment contracts for multiple companies during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Andrew Feldman — a peer who used to play tennis with former Prime Minister David Cameron and was drafted into the health department as Britain fought the virus — recommended contracts for three successful firms.
It has been reported before that Feldman helped secure work for Bunzl Healthcare, a client of his lobbying firm Tulchan. It can now be revealed he also helped three other companies win contracts worth tens of millions of pounds.
The revelations are contained in the full list of 47 firms that won contracts via the U.K. government’s VIP fast-track system that sped up procurement for personal protective equipment (PPE) during the early stages of the pandemic, which POLITICO publishes in full today.
The VIP lane, which was set up by officials, allowed ministers, MPs, Lords and top government officials to recommend firms that could help secure protective equipment for medical staff when the U.K. was struggling to source equipment in 2020. According to the government watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), leads referred via this route were considered by the cross-government PPE team to “be more credible or needed to be treated with more urgency.” Firms did not face the usual anti-corruption checks due to the emergency.
The list shows that former Health Secretary Matt Hancock helped secure work for four firms; that former Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings helped one; and that prominent MPs Julian Lewis, Steve Brine, Esther McVey and Andrew Percy were among those who submitted referrals to the VIP process.
It also reveals that a Conservative peer who insisted she did not help a company she is linked to receive contracts did, in fact, refer that company to the government scheme. And it shows that the former boss of the Royal College of Nursing helped win a contract for a business tycoon she faced an investigation over.
While there is no suggestion that the referrers made the final decisions on whether or not to award contracts, the government has refused to make public who was involved in the process.
The NAO has said companies processed through the high-priority lane were 10 times more successful at securing PPE contracts — leading to questions over favoritism and conflicts of interest. Some £1.7 billion was handed out to VIP firms according to MPs. The government was set to publish the list before next week, after the information watchdog rebuked it for withholding the details.
The Good Law Project, which has been working to uncover details of the VIP lane contracts, said “the vast financial rewards you could reap if you had a minister looking out for your interests” had at last been revealed.
“There was no good reason — but there were obvious bad reasons — for government to keep the public in the dark about these links,” said its director Jo Maugham. “We now need some transparency about the equivalent VIP lane for Test and Trace contracts — on which £37bn of public money was spent.”
The government insisted ministers did not take decisions on awarding contracts and that the fast-tracked process secured some 5 billion items of protective equipment. “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,” a government spokesperson said. “Ministers were not involved in awarding contracts.”
The list shows the “source of referral,” where the recommendation for a firm first came from, and the “actual referrer” who made the formal submission proposing the business.
The revelation that Feldman helped secured contracts for three further firms will pile pressure on an existing judicial review over the Bunzl Healthcare procurement. Feldman also helped Maxima Markets, SG Recruitment and Skinnydip to secure work worth £65 million, according to contracts on the Tussell procurement database. Bunzl Healthcare was not included in the fast-track scheme.
Asked about his role in referring firms, Feldman said he had merely passed on offers of help.
“I was an unpaid volunteer with the DHSC during the early days of the pandemic which involved considering offers sent in from potential sources of PPE or other medical supplies, and passing credible offers on to officials. I had no previous knowledge of SG Recruitment, Skinnydip and Maxima and I have never had any commercial relationship with them or their owners,” he said. “I passed the offers on to officials who considered them in accordance with the DHSC procurement rules.”
SG Recruitment, later renamed as Sumner Group Health Limited, is linked to tax havens and controversial mining contracts, according to the Daily Mail.
After it won a £12.9 million contract to provide hand sanitizer, one of the other firms put forward by Feldman, fashion firm Skinnydip, saw its finances jump from a loss of £955,000 in 2019 to a profit of £4.1 million in 2020.
Elsewhere, the list says Cummings helped Global United Trading to secure two contracts worth almost £800,000. The ex-adviser said he could not recall being involved. “This is an admin error. I’ve not been involved with this company. I would like DHSC and No. 10/Cabinet Office to release any and all documents they hold on the matter concerning me if any exist,” he said.
The list shows that Conservative peer and lingerie businesswoman Michelle Mone referred PPE Medpro through the VIP channel. The firm went on to win contracts worth £200 million.
One of its directors, Anthony Paige, was a former secretary for MGM Media, a company that manages Mone’s personal brand. He is also a director of Knox House Trust — part of the Knox Group which is run by Mone’s husband Douglas Barrowman.
Mone denied knowledge of “any ‘high priority lane’” and said she had no part in or knowledge of PPE Medpro being placed in such a lane.
The list also reveals that former Royal College of Nursing head Donna Kinnair referred the businessman George Farha for PPE contracts. Farha was running a pizza firm called NKD International which he quickly expanded with a PPE wing after the pandemic hit. It won a contract worth £135,000 through the VIP lane.
Kinnair quit the RCN citing health problems in July. But it was reported in September that she had faced an investigation over her links to Farha and allegations she met Hancock without telling union officials.
A spokesman for Farha said the businessman had been unaware he was on the VIP list. He said he had been involved with the RCN for a long time and had a friendly professional relationship with Kinnair, insisting the pair were not friends independent of their work. The spokesman added that Farha billed the government at cost and lost cash on the arrangement — plus he gave a donation to a PPE charity.
POLITICO could not reach Kinnair but an RCN spokesperson said: “In this period, our priority was challenging the quality and supply of PPE on behalf of members. The government is responsible for the awarding of these contracts and the RCN, as an organization, rightly does not get involved.”
Elsewhere, the list shows it was former Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove who referred Meller Designs — a firm run by Conservative donor David Meller — to the VIP lane. The firm won contracts worth almost £50 million.
Gove also proposed a company that sold the government goggles that expired before they could be used.
UPDATED: This article has been amended to clarify a reference to Andrew Feldman’s role in the referral process and to add a comment from Michelle Mone.
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