Hancock caught bare faced lying. His pub landlord mate bunged millions in contracts while hiding behind an intermediary.
https://twitter.com/jolyonmaugham/status/1465927734069280768?s=21
But he and his pub landlord and others were busy saving millions of lives….The shaky voice gave him away. Should be in prison.
In a few decades, Covid will be revealed to have been a giant smash and grab raid on the public finances. Billions stolen.
This is corruption in government.
It’s theft on an industrial scale,Absolutely, and it is far from an isolated incident. The UK Conservative Party can now only be considered a criminal entity IMHO. I’d like to see a class-action against the actual party organisation itself, i.e. go after its assets to recover the money it has stolen from us.
Yet, unbelievably, the Met Police claims there isn’t enough evidence to open a criminal investigation.
Good Law Project are looking to sue the Met police if they fail to investigate Tory Party breaches of covid restrictions (parties etc):
“In the very building where the rules were being made, they were being broken. No 10 advisors were reportedly having parties. Those closest to Boris Johnson laughed as they practiced how to lie to us about it.
There have been multiple reports from people in attendance that a party of 40 – 50 people took place in the Prime Minister’s own home on 18 December 2020. This would have been a clear breach of the ‘tier 3’ restrictions in place at the time.
Yet, unbelievably, the Met Police claims there isn’t enough evidence to open a criminal investigation.
Boris Johnson and his Cabinet have shown us what they think about the ‘little’ people. Our sacrifices are just something to laugh at. They think that the laws of the land don’t apply to them.
But the law says we are all equal. And the Metropolitan Police need to apply it.
It’s shocking just how much damage to public confidence in policing and the rule of law the top brass at the Met are prepared to do to avoid an embarrassing confrontation with Number 10.
It seems the Met have forgotten their role is to investigate crime. We intend to remind them.
Our lawyers have today written to the Met asking them to open an investigation, or if not, to provide the full and detailed reasons behind their refusal to do so. We’re also asking the Met to provide details of its policy ‘not to investigate retrospective breaches of the Covid regulations’, referred to in its statement of 8 December 2021.
If they fail to do this, we will be left with little choice but to consider suing.
You can read our letter to the Met in full here.
Good Law Project only exists thanks to donations from people across the UK. If you’re in a position to support our work, you can do so here.
We recognise that this is a difficult challenge, so we will assess the response we get before launching fundraising for this case.”
Quite a disturbing update today regarding the poor quality of Tory “VIP lane” PPE and attempts to tamper with safety regulations to get it to NHS staff despite it being unsafe/unfit for purpose:
“PPE supplied by high profile VIPs has repeatedly been cleared for use by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), overruling concerns of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) that it is not fit for purpose.
Good Law Project challenged the award of £108m of PPE contracts to Clandeboye, a confectionery wholesaler. Clandeboye does not appear on the DHSC’s list of VIPs but Government’s internal documents tell a different story.
What DHSC told the High Court was that: “Clandeboye answered the call to arms by making a viable offer and performing its contracts” and had been “approved in testing upon arrival”.
However, emails obtained by the BBC show the [HSE] saying: “The outer packaging for these aprons indicates that they are fluid repellent gowns, which they are not… they are not Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and do not meet the requirements of the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations (EU) 2016/425.” Nevertheless, after months of email correspondence the DHSC issued a notice authorising their use.
The BBC’s report – which you can watch here – also shows that large quantities of Clandeboye’s aprons were offloaded on ebay and other auctioneers for a tiny fraction of the price paid by DHSC.
Good Law Project has written asking Government to explain how it has adhered to its duties of candour and not to mislead the High Court.
This is not the first occasion on which DHSC has put the HSE under pressure to ‘clear’ for use PPE supplied by VIPs under contracts Good Law Project is challenging.
Good Law Project is also challenging the award of £349 million of PPE contracts to “VIP” Crisp Websites Limited, trading as “Pestfix”, a then tiny pest control specialist.
Emails after those proceedings were issued show the HSE complaining that the DHSC was “bombarding” it with requests to provide a statement that was “not factually accurate”. The HSE was sufficiently concerned that it sought legal advice on its position. An email Government contractor talks of there being “quite a bit of ‘political’ pressure to get Pestfix products through the QA [Quality Assurance] process.”
And then there is P14 Medical.
P14 Medical was run by ex-Tory Councillor Steve Dechan and won a £116m contract to supply face shields through the Government’s VIP lane. The contract received extensive coverage in the national press.
Emails obtained by Good Law Project show that DHSC stepped in to approve the face shields for use despite the HSE warning in September 2020 that key documentation and certification was missing.
The Times reported that the HSE raised concerns about whether face shields supplied by P14 Medical met required standards. HSE wrote to officials saying the shields “cannot enter the NHS supply chain” because of “inconsistencies” in the documentation P14 had supplied. These included certificates that were “out of date” and applied to different companies and products, such as a “packaging firm” and “beauty products”. HSE said the testing laboratory used to verify the safety of the shields was “not an accredited laboratory” either’.
Despite those concerns, the DHSC overruled the HSE and approved the face shields for use in February of this year.
A spokesperson for P14 Medical said they are: “an expert company that has been in medical supplies for eight years including PPE that managed to deliver on a big contract that ‘big companies’ could not. They provided the equipment to the government when it was needed, on time and in accordance with the specified requirements”.
A HSE spokesperson said: “HSE’s round-the-clock advice and assurance to health services at the height of PPE supply shortages was rooted in science and experience, not just the regulations. It was as a result of our checks that we caught a lot of PPE that wasn’t safe and wouldn’t have protected people” and denied that it had been put under political pressure.
DHSC did not respond to requests for comment.
There are serious questions to answer. Why has DHSC overruled the HSE to get hundreds of millions of pounds of PPE supplied by high profile VIPs, including those whose contracts are being challenged in court, into the supply chain? Are they putting politics before public health?
Good Law Project only exists thanks to donations from people across the UK. If you’re in a position to support our work, you can do so here. “