The Conservatives are facing renewed public fury after a study found some of the former government’s Covid contracts, worth more than £15 billion, raised corruption “red flags”.
The report from Transparency International UK looked into more than 5,000 contracts across 400 public bodies and discovered 135 high-risk contracts were worth investigation.
Those contracts alone were worth a collective value of £15.3bn – almost one in every three pounds spent on the pandemic – and were flagged because they raised three or more concerns over corruption.
“Most of these contracts exhibited red flags across multiple areas of risk – including those associated with the supplier profile, the procurement process and the contract outcomes – and often spanning all three. Some contracts displayed as many as eight red flags,” the researchers explained.
At least 28 of those deals – worth £4.1bn, almost a tenth of the total money spent on the pandemic response – went to firms with known connections to the Conservative party, Transparency International UK claimed.
Eight contracts allegedly went to suppliers which were had been established for no more than 100 days.
The department of health and social care also wrote off £14.9bn of public money over that two-year period, according to the report. That is the same amount as the government’s overall spend on PPE (personal protective equipment).
The government allegedly used a VIP lane to give 51 contracts priority, 24 of which were referred to by Tory politicians or their offices, too.
Transparency International UK said it is now calling for authorities to investigate the high-risk contracts.
In response to the findings, a Tory spokesperson referred to a National Audit Office report from November 2020 which found ministers had properly declared their interests.
They told the Guardian: “Government policy was in no way influenced by the donations the party received – they are entirely separate.”
The new Labour government is intending to appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to look at the £7.6bn of fraud recorded during the pandemic.
A Treasury spokesperson said this will help “get back the money that is owed to the British people”.
They added: “The commissioner will report directly to the chancellor, working with the secretary of state for health and social care, and their report will be presented to parliament for all members to see.”
The survey from Transparency International UK also sparked furious backlash across X, with users calling out the supposed corruption and “pure unadulterated greed”.