The Guardian reports that the Conservative peer, Andrew Feldman, a former Conservative party chair advising the government during the coronavirus pandemic, helped a company secure PPE contracts worth £50m after a fellow Tory peer introduced him to the firm.
Feldman referred the company, SG Recruitment, to the “VIP lane” that gave priority to politically connected firms, after the introduction by Lord Chadlington, a Tory peer for 26 years.
Chadlington, whose name is Peter Selwyn Gummer, had a financial interest in SG Recruitment as he was a director and shareholder of its parent company, Sumner Group Holdings, which is registered in Jersey.
Documents obtained by the Guardian through the Freedom of Information Act shed new light on how SG Recruitment came to be awarded the £50m government contracts. There is mounting parliamentary scrutiny over the government’s decision to use a VIP lane to prioritise offers of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic, benefiting companies that were recommended by Tory peers and other politicians and officials.
Full article in The Guardian, 9 January 2023
