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Firm with ties to Hancock given ‘VIP treatment’, emails suggest

The government gave “VIP treatment” to a firm offering Covid testing facilities which had entered the system “informally” because Matt Hancock was “a good friend” of somebody working with the company, according to internal emails seen by the Guardian.

The Animal Health Trust (AHT) had a laboratory based in Newmarket, in the then health secretary’s West Suffolk constituency, and much of its work focused on medical care for horses, including for the horse racing industry with which Hancock has close ties.

The emails between officials within the Department of Health and Social Care appear to contradict denials from that department and the Cabinet Office of the existence of a VIP or “fast track” process for firms with political connections seeking government contracts for Covid testing. Hancock resigned from the cabinet last month after being caught kissing his aide.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 23: British Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock leaves 10 Downing Street in London, United Kingdom on June 23, 2021. (Photo by David Cliff/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)© 2021 Anadolu Agency LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – JUNE 23: British Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock leaves 10 Downing Street in London, United Kingdom on June 23, 2021. (Photo by David Cliff/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In an email on 23 April 2020 to health department officials working on the operation to scale up testing, a civil servant wrote: “AHT came in direct to SofS [secretary of state] office – someone who works with them is a good friend of his and so they entered the system informally that way … They must have fallen through the records gap if we’ve not got trace of them – they’ve definitely been in touch with us and had VIP treatment.”

Apparently addressing the lack of clear records documenting the discussions with AHT, the next morning a senior civil servant wrote: “We definitely need to capture them in the system somehow, so they receive future comms and offers. Owner [sic] is a friend of SofS, lab is in his constituency/area – so he will get direct feedback on our processes!”

A reply was sent to that email by Simon Greaves, a consultant who has described his role for the health department as working “to lead VIP stakeholder engagement” alongside Lord Bethell, the minister brought in by Hancock who oversaw the awarding of Covid contracts.

A government source told the Guardian last month that “VIP” in Greaves’s role description meant leading figures in the testing industry, not people with political connections, as it did in relation to the “VIP/high priority lane” that the government operated when awarding contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE).

Covid-19 variant of concern public health NHS advertising board with just five more days to the official 'freedom day' planned for the 19th July, people, many of whom are wearing face masks, come to the city centre retail shopping district on 14th July 2021 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. After months of lockdown, but with case numbers rising, in particular that of the Delta Variant, there is hope that life will start to return to normal, with restrictions like the compulsory wearing of face coverings in public spaces ending. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)© Mike Kemp Covid-19 variant of concern public health NHS advertising board with just five more days to the official ‘freedom day’ planned for the 19th July, people, many of whom are wearing face masks, come to the city centre retail shopping district on 14th July 2021 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. After months of lockdown, but with case numbers rising, in particular that of the Delta Variant, there is hope that life will start to return to normal, with restrictions like the compulsory wearing of face coverings in public spaces ending. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Greaves’s newly revealed email asked if AHT could be logged as a VIP “based on the below” – the email from the civil servant who said the AHT “owner” was a friend of Hancock’s. “We have a stakeholder log in which we capture VIP stakeholders relevant to pillar five [building testing capacity],” Greaves wrote. “Can we capture animal health group [sic] based on the below?”

Addressing one NHS England staff member in the group, Greaves added: “We should also speak about how to ensure our Vip [sic] processes are aligned to minimise duplication.”

Despite the VIP treatment, AHT does not appear to have been given a government testing contract. A royal charter company and registered charity with annual funding of approximately £700,000 from horse racing, AHT was already experiencing financial difficulties in March 2020. In July of that year, it went into liquidation.

The health department’s denial last month that it operated a VIP process for testing followed the emergence of an email in a legal challenge brought against the government by the Good Law Project regarding three PPE contracts. Max Cairnduff, a Cabinet Office procurement director, wrote in that email that if offers to supply testing kits came via a minister, officials should “put FASTTRACK at the beginning of the subject line”.

DURHAM, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 01: Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party visits a building development project on the banks of the River Wear on May 01, 2021 in Durham, United Kingdom. The leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party are campaigning in County Durham ahead of the local elections and a by-election in Hartlepool, which both take place on May 6. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)© 2021 Getty Images DURHAM, UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 01: Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party visits a building development project on the banks of the River Wear on May 01, 2021 in Durham, United Kingdom. The leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party are campaigning in County Durham ahead of the local elections and a by-election in Hartlepool, which both take place on May 6. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

However, a government spokesperson said: “There was no high-priority lane for testing suppliers. All offers of testing went through the same robust assurance checks and there was no separate ‘fast track process’.”

Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said of the latest emails: “It’s just so explicit: civil servants were giving special treatment to friends of the minister. The government flatly denied that there was a VIP process for testing, so what are we supposed to make of all the other denials the government has issued?”

Angela Rayner, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, called for a “fully independent investigation” into whether there was a VIP fast track process for the Covid test-and-trace operation, which had a £37bn budget. “This is yet more evidence that we can’t trust a word that Conservative ministers say,” Rayner said.

The health department, Hancock and Greaves were contacted for comment.

Source: Theguardian.com

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