We Have A Right To Know

Ricky Hale writes:

The Metropolitan Police are arresting peaceful protesters outside the US Embassy in London today. They’ve once again shamed themselves by carrying away pensioners by their arms and legs for holding up signs they don’t like. To make matters worse, some of those arrested were carrying blank placards and some weren’t holding signs at all. Yes, even saying nothing is a crime now. In fact, it’s terrorism. The Met Police began making arrests before any signs were on display, arresting volunteers like this woman for supporting people holding signs, and arresting people for having blank placards.

The demonstration was organised by the group Defend Our Juries. A Section 35 dispersal order was in force, but around 400 people gathered anyway to protest against the proscription of Palestine Action and the genocide in Gaza. In the UK, expressing support for Palestine Action is a terror offence, so I’m not encouraging anyone to do that. The protesters could face up to 14 years in prison for acting according to their conscience. Even if they’re not imprisoned, simply being charged with a terror offence will hang over them for the rest of their lives. It’s a matter of weeks since members of Andy Burnham’s government were telling us that no one wants to see old ladies being carried away, and now they’re going further than ever.

Prior to the demonstration, Met Police Commander Adam Slonecki stated that those “providing logistical support will very likely be committing an offence and face enforcement action.” It appears police have made it a crime to support people who support Palestine Action, even if they don’t support the group themselves! This is stupid on so many levels, not least that Palestine Action doesn’t exist anymore. Journalist Claire Hymer contacted the Met and asked them to clarify what is meant by logistical support. Does it mean giving someone a lift? Handing out a bottle of water? A few snacks? The Met refused to clarify. Police can’t explain what counts as criminal behaviour because they’re making it up as they go along. They’re making up secret laws, threatening you with arrest if you break them, and refusing to tell you what those laws are, or what you can do to stay within them! This is textbook fascism.

Not only are grannies and wheelchair users terrorists for expressing opinions the government doesn’t like, but anyone who is nice to those grannies and wheelchair users is also a terrorist. It gets even stupider when you consider the dispersal order meant police could force people to leave parts of central London on the assumption they might break the made up laws. That means we have pre-crime to go with the assault on free speech. Where do we draw the line? Are we gonna arrest people for saying they support the right of these people to protest? Are we gonna arrest people for saying they oppose the proscription of Palestine Action on free speech grounds? It’s McCarthyite nonsense to protect a state that’s committing genocide with weapons made in our country.

And whose interests is the State protecting? Peter Geoghegan and Jenna Corderoy write:

More than 30 senior Conservatives are named in newly released records of companies referred to the government’s controversial Covid PPE ‘VIP lane’ back in 2020, following a five-year fight by Democracy for Sale to force the government to divulge the information. The documents identify hundreds of businesses – and the politicians, ministers, senior civil servants and other figures who recommended them for the ‘VIP lane’ to lucrative government Covid contracts. Among those named are eight members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet, Sarah Ferguson and the banking giant Santander.

Four of those cabinet ministers in the documents had not previously been named: then foreign secretary Dominic Raab, justice secretary Robert Buckland, Welsh secretary Simon Hart, and housing secretary Robert Jenrick, who is listed only as a ‘possible’ referrer. Companies referred to the VIP lane were ten times more likely to secure contracts, according to the National Audit Office. Around £1bn of the £1.7bn spent on PPE from VIP suppliers was wasted on supplies later deemed unfit to use. 

The release of the records brings to an end a fight for transparency that began in February 2021, when now Democracy for Sale reporter Jenna Corderoy submitted a Freedom of Information request seeking the names of every company referred to the so-called ‘VIP lane’ and those who had recommended them. The government resisted disclosure for more than five years. In February 2025, a tribunal ordered it to name the unsuccessful suppliers and rejected its argument that identifying their referrers would cost too much.

The Cabinet Office still withheld the referrers’ names until Democracy for Sale appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Office, who ruled last month that they should be disclosed. They were finally published on Thursday. The Cabinet Office has warned that it cannot completely verify the accuracy of the reconstructed referral data, and some individuals are identified only as ‘possible’ referrers. There is no suggestion that making a referral was itself improper. Among other things, the documents show:

• Raab recommended a Cambridgeshire toy maker who had only a single employee at the start of the pandemic. Jenrick, now Reform UK treasury spokesman, is listed as ‘possibly’ referring an export packing firm.
• Graham Brady, then chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, referred an interior design company near his Altrincham and Sale West seat. Brady told Democracy for Sale that he had “no recollection of this but given the location, I assume I was passing on an approach from a constituent. I have no involvement with the company and never have had.” Owen Paterson, who later left parliament after a lobbying scandal, referred a Birmingham biotech firm working on pregnancy complications. None of these firms were given contracts.
• Then health secretary Matt Hancock is named against 27 companies, three of them marked ‘possible’. Former Conservative party chairman Lord Feldman is recorded against 21 (three ‘possible’) and Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew against 14 (four ‘possible’). Grant Shapps and Michael Gove also referred firms, including, in Gove’s case, Meller Designs, run by donor David Meller, which received £164m in Covid contracts.
• Sarah Ferguson, then the Duchess of York and ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, referred Biz Trading Ltd, a small London-based pharmaceutical company that was dissolved in 2022, according to Companies House. The Covid Inquiry previously heard that she had approached the government’s PPE adviser, Lord Deighton, about supplies from China, but the company was not named.
• A Cabinet Office official referred an offer recorded as ‘Greentech Labs on behalf of China Aerospace & NORINCO’. Norinco, China’s main state weapons manufacturer, has been sanctioned by the US. Huawei Technologies was referred by an NHS official in 2020, while the government was reviewing Huawei’s role in 5G, and No 10 policy chief Munira Mirza referred two Chinese firms. 
• Santander is named as the referrer for four suppliers and as the possible referrer for eight others, including two gin distillers.

In total, 415 suppliers were channelled down the VIP lane, according to documents supplied to the Covid Inquiry and seen by Democracy for Sale. Conservative politicians referred 119 of them, and 25 went on to win contracts. Politicians from other parties referred just five, none of which landed a deal. 

Transparency International chief executive Duncan Hames said that the government should not have fought against disclosing the details of the VIP lane. “The public have a right to know who was fast-tracked and on whose say-so. Five years of resisting disclosure has been a prolonged and unnecessary failure of transparency, and it has only deepened the damage to public trust,” Hames said. Jo Maugham, executive director of the Good Law Project said that “contracts for cronies remains one of the greatest stories never told. The Cabinet Office, which ‘administered’ the bonanza, successfully diverted the attention of an easily distracted Labour Government. So it’s so reassuring that Democracy for Sale refuses to take no for an answer. It’s our money, it was vast fortunes, and we have a right to know.”

During Covid, normal procurement rules were suspended and contracts could be awarded without competition. The ‘VIP lane’ was a way for well-connected people to bring potential suppliers to the attention of the government. The government never explained how MPs and other individuals and organisations were made aware of the existence of the VIP lane and allowed to make referrals to it. The Covid Inquiry concluded that the scheme ‘was inherently biased towards those with connections to the UK government’ and ‘should not be repeated’. Last October, the High Court ordered PPE Medpro, the company led by the husband of Conservative peer Michelle Mone, which she referred to the VIP lane, to repay £122m. Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman deny wrongdoing.

Democracy for Sale contacted all the individuals named in this story. Former justice secretary Robert Buckland said: “I have no recollection whatsoever about this referral. I have never heard of the company and have had no connection with it whatsoever. “If there had been any connection between me and the company I would have declared it and if there had been a conflict of interest I would have asked another colleague to deal with the request.” Munira Mirza said that she referred “far more than two offers of help” listed in the Cabinet Office’s release. “I didn’t know any of the people or companies I passed on personally or I’d remember that. I certainly didn’t have any interest in any of them,” Mirza told Democracy for Sale.

A government spokesperson said: “This relates to matters under the previous government,” adding: “we are relentlessly pursuing those who defrauded taxpayers during the pandemic, determined to recover as much as possible of the billions lost - money that should have been funding our teachers, police officers, and vital public services.” Labour MP Lloyd Hatton told us that while referring a company is not improper in itself, “I am shocked that Conservative politicians referred 119 contracts - and 25 then went on to receive taxpayers’ money, most of which was wasted. “The public deserves to know who referred what, who benefited, and why. Every pound of taxpayers’ money must deliver value for money.” It took Democracy for Sale more than five years to get these names released. Know more about the companies or referrals? Get in touch at info@democracyforsale.uk.